NATCHEZ &045; This wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

Natchez was struggling against Magee’s ace fireballer and got down to its last out without a runner on base and down by four runs. Magee’s Tyson McDonald had retired the five of the first six batters he faced with the first two looking at a called third strike.

Most folks were ready to take it to the house.

But it didn’t happen that way.

Scrappy hitting in perhaps the biggest clutch situation ever for a bunch of 11-year-olds helped Natchez to take a 9-8 win over Magee at the Dixie Youth 11-year-old state tournament at Carroll-Jones Field. It put the host team as the only undefeated team so far in the tournament and gave the home fans another night of getting their money’s worth at the ball park.

That’s two wins in their last at-bat in as many nights for the Natchez All-Stars. They will play at 8 p.m. today against Laurel.

Once McDonald got the second out in the sixth, Daniel Dunaway slapped a single to set the table. He went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Christopher Perry’s single to trim the lead to 8-5.

Collin Hammons walked, and Scott Turner delivered with a single deep enough to the outfield that Perry &045; with only one shoe &045; just slid in under the tag to score the second run of the inning.

Daniel Huffines followed that with a single that scored Hammons to second to trim the lead to 8-7 and move Turner to second. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch, and Jamon Gray walked on four pitches to load the bases.

Trevor Farmer then lined a single that got by the second baseman and went to the fence to allow Turner to score the tying run and Huffines the winning run for the win.

Natchez had to bounce back and stage the rally after errors cost them in the fifth inning and helped allow Magee to take the three-run lead. Sellers stretched a single into a double on a play Natchez coaches thought he ran out of the baseline, but it set the stage for an infield single from Franklin Hayes that scored Sellers to tie the game at 4-4.

Curt Toney then singled to right, and the throw to third went wild to allow Hayes and score and Toney to end up at second. Dakota Kennedy then singled in Toney, but two errors on the play allowed Kennedy to come all the way around to score for an inside-the-park home run and a 7-4 lead.