NATCHEZ &045; Rain may have come as a welcome sight to many farmers, homeowners, and fishers in the area Monday afternoon, but it caused some headaches for local youth league leaders.

Tournament games for the Dixie Youth 10-year-olds in Natchez and the Dixie Major 15-18-year-olds in Vidalia were moved behind schedule by a day, and the opening of the T.M. Jennings 13-16-year-old playoffs was postponed, although full details were unavailable.

Porky Smith, head of the Natchez Dixie Youth league, said his tournament would move on virtually unchanged.

&8220;The games scheduled tonight &045; Natchez against the Brookhaven Americans at six o&8217;clock, and Copiah and Wesson, scheduled at eight &045; have been postponed. We will not play on July 4, so action will resume on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The games scheduled for Wednesday are being bumped back to Thursday. This rain just knocked us a day behind.&8221;

Leo Elliser, who heads up the Dixie Majors division in Vidalia, said his tournament would do the same.

&8220;We rained out tonight,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re going to make it up tomorrow. We&8217;ll have just to move the championship back a day.&8221;

Games did manage to get off the ground in other areas of the Miss-Lou Monday night, as the Natchez 9-year-old Dixie Youth All-Stars stayed alive in their district tournament by defeating the Copiah County All-Stars by a score of 6-2.

Lester Wells pitched a complete game to give Natchez the win.

The Natchez 9-year-olds will have Independence Day off, but will head back to Hazlehurst Wednesday to take on Summit. A win there would send them to the championship game Thursday against Wesson.