WESSON &045; Man, could Bailey Warren bring it.

Nothing fancy, though. The 9-year-old playing with the 10-year-old Brookhaven National League All-Stars didn’t miss much, didn’t wear down hardly at all and kept the Natchez 10-year-old All-Stars off balance enough Friday night to walk off the mound with a no-hitter.

The Nationals came away an 8-1 winner to knock Natchez out of the sub-district tournament to end its All-Star summer.

&uot;We played with a lot of guys who didn’t have All-Star experience,&uot; Natchez head coach Ken Janette said. &uot;We didn’t get enough time to practice. We’ve only been a team about a week. I thought they did pretty well considering. We only had four practices, three practice games and two real games in a week. That’s a lot to ask out of a 10-year-old.&uot;

Some players didn’t have All-Star experience since this was the first summer Natchez fielded Minor League All-Star teams by age and not by Rebel and Confederate leagues. But give credit to Warren, who may have shocked people by getting the start in the second game of the tournament and not the first.

The Nationals lost to the Brookhaven Americans 10-6 Thursday to open the tournament.

&uot;He threw great,&uot; Nationals head coach Buddy Thibodeaux said. &uot;He was just raring back and throwing like I know he can. You don’t see 9-year-olds throw like that. The last one I saw throw like that was Tyler Cunningham, and he’s at Parklane now.&uot;

It’s hard to say whether Warren wore down any over the course of the game, but he did have a perfect game going through four before Taylor Buckles walked to lead off the fifth. Yet up until then Warren fanned eight straight and 10 of the first 12 batters he faced to open the game.

By that time the Nationals had a 7-0 lead and control of the game.

&uot;He’s a tough pitcher, and you’ve got to give him all the credit,&uot; Janette said. &uot;It was much faster than pitching we’ve seen in our league definitely. And with control. The kids who throw nearly that hard are wild, and they’re not used to seeing it that fast in the zone. But a few more times (seeing him), who knows.&uot;

Warren finished the game with 12 strikeouts, and the only ball that left the infield came when Kyle Bradley popped one up on the grass in short center. But Natchez got on the board in the sixth when Sky Logan was hit by pitch, moved up a bag each on two groundouts and scored on a wild pitch.

Things were going so well early for Warren when Tyler Duncan hit a hard liner back up to the mound in the second, when he knocked it down the ball fell right into the palm of his right hand. He made the putout easily.

&uot;He just throws hard &045; that’s all his dad allows him to do,&uot; Thibodeaux said. &uot;We don’t throw changeups. He just brings it. But we’ve probably about five pitchers deep. Hopefully with him being a 9-year-old &045; you don’t know what to expect in All-Stars &045; we’ve got three or four 10-year-olds I thought would have pitched better last night, but you’ve got to give the Brookhaven Americans credit.&uot;

The Nationals did the damage at the plate in the first inning against Natchez to take control of the game early. The first six batters reached base before the first out, including Brandon Smith’s single on the first pitch he saw to lead off the inning, and Warren drove in a run with a single after Graham Watson doubled.

Natchez had two errors in the inning, and the Nationals used them and a couple wild pitches to take the 6-0 lead.

&uot;Brandon has been hitting the ball well for us in practice games, and I felt comfortable with him leading off,&uot; Thibodeaux said. &uot;Tanner (Porvin) &045; he’s been my cleanup hitter all year. You start with those two guys on base, and things will happen.&uot;

But credit Natchez for playing solid defense after that first inning and allowing only two runs. In the second the defense pegged Christian Gill at the plate when Colton Webb took the throw from the outfield and threw him out at the plate.

In the fourth the Nationals loaded the bases with one out, but Natchez got the last two outs on force outs at home to end the inning.

Cody Rhinehart pitched three innings before Turner Janette pitched a scoreless fifth.

&uot;We played well tonight,&uot; Ken Janette said. &uot;We barely made any errors tonight compared to last night. You could see it in their eyes tonight. They were a little more focused on what they were doing. All my pitchers did well tonight. We wanted to shake things up and make them see something different every time up.

&uot;We weren’t deep in pitching, and we knew that. The league as a whole was short on pitching. We were going to have to play perfect defense to stay with anybody because they were going to hit the ball.&uot;