DERIDDER, La. — The Concordia Parish 9-year-old All-Star team was held to just three hits by solid pitching and good defense in an 8-2 loss to the Ville Platte All-Stars Friday afternoon at the state tournament.

“We played a tough team that had tremendous pitching. It was all about speed and good accuracy,” Concordia Parish 9-year-olds head coach Jamie Lancaster said. “They could place it on the outside of the plate. We hit the ball. What few times we put the bat on the ball, they made the plays.”

Concordia Parish was not able to get on the scoreboard until the top of the fifth inning. Joey Russell got on with a single and scored on a triple by Lee Lancaster. Cameron King hit a ground ball to second base and Lancaster scored on a fielder’s choice.

The only other hit by Concordia Parish in the game was a double by Walker Wheeler.

“They struck out nine batters. Nine-year-old kids pitching 50 miles per hour,” coach Lancaster said.

Starting and winning pitcher Matthew Duplechain struck out four batters in two innings. Alex Griffith picked up where Duplechain left off by striking out four in the next two innings. And while Brandon Fontenot gave up the two runs and two hits in the fifth, he did strike out one batter.

Ville Platte, on the other hand, scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and tacked on two more in the bottom of the second. The home team in this game put it away with four runs in the bottom of the third.

And while Concordia Parish’s pitching gave up eight hits and struck out just five, it did walk just one batter over four innings.

“They were pretty solid. They hit the ball pretty well. We made a few errors,” Lancaster said.

The Concordia Parish 9-year-old All-Stars won’t have much time to get over this loss. The continue pool play today with two games, first against Alexandria at 11 a.m. and then they take on Ponchatoula at 4 p.m. They will need to win both games and have some help to advance to win their pool and advance to the semifinals on Sunday.