From staff reports

MONROE, La. — Despite two rallies by the West Monroe North 9- and 10-year-old All-Stars, the Ferriday All-Stars somehow managed to stay in the lead the entire ball game en route to a 15-14 win Tuesday afternoon at the District 5 District Tournament.

It wasn’t exactly the best-played game as far as defense was concerned as both teams committed a total of 11 errors — five by Ferriday and six by West Monroe North.

“We squeezed out a win,” Ferriday head coach Travis Brown said. “The defense was slow for both teams. The defense was not there for either team.”

Ferriday jumped out to a 9-0 lead after an inning and a half of play, but West Monroe North, one of the favorites to win the tournament, scored three runs in the bottom of the second and third innings and two more in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 9-8.

“We got off to a pretty good lead off the bat,” Brown said. “We walked a few batters and they started hitting the ball. We started Tyler Stockstill and they were hitting the ball. We put in Jake Barlow and they were still hitting the ball.”

However, Ferriday regained the momentum by scoring five runs in the top of the fifth inning for a 14-8 lead, only to see West Monroe North score four runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 14-12.

Ferriday scored what proved to be the winning run in the top of the sixth as West Monroe North scored two runs in the bottom of the final inning, but it wasn’t enough.

“They hit the ball well. But we hit the ball well,” Brown said.

Wyatt Boothe went 2-for-5 with two doubles for Ferriday, which was out-hit by West Monroe North 14 to eight. Addison McCart was 3-for-5 with two doubles and Josh Peuvelake was also 3-for-5 for West Monroe North.

Ferriday will take on the winner of the Rayville-Monroe game today at 8 p.m. while Vidalia will go up against the loser of that game today at 4 p.m.