HATTIESBURG — Natchez Dixie Youth 12-year-old All-Star head coach Gary Farmer described his team’s play Monday night as lackadaisical.

And the score reflected his sentiments, as the 12s fell to Columbia 13-1 in five innings Monday night.

For the fourth day in a row, inclement weather played a role at the 2011 Mississippi Majors South Regional Tournament.

All three of Monday’s games at the tournament, which are being played at Larry Doleac Youth Park and Tatum Complex, were supposed to have started an hour and a half later than originally scheduled due to strong thunderstorms that rolled through the Hattiesburg area during the middle of the day.

Instead, the delay ended going a three hours, meaning the 12s’ game versus Columbia, with the No. 4 seed for the upcoming state tournament on the line, didn’t begin until 7 p.m.

Even though Natchez 12s coach Gary Farmer said the lengthy weather delay did not have any impact on his team, it was how Natchez played that was a big factor.

“We came out flat. We didn’t have our ‘A’ game and Columbia did,” Farmer said. “We didn’t hit the ball. We hit it right to somebody. Columbia came out swinging. They came out hitting and we didn’t.”

In fact, Natchez had not been the home team in any of its games in this tournament until this one. But that didn’t matter to Columbia, either.

Columbia struck first with one run in the top of the first inning before Natchez tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second. Dalvion Jackson singled, moved to second base on a fielder’s choice and third base on a passed ball before scoring on a bunt single by Christian Day.

However, Columbia had a day off to get ready for this game after being 10-run ruled by the Laurel Nationals last Saturday to fall to the losers’ bracket. And that proved to be another key factor.

Home runs by Stovall, Pittman and Elzey helped Columbia blow the game open as it scored 12 runs over the final three innings while Natchez couldn’t get anything going against starting and winning pitcher Colby White.

White held Natchez to one run on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks in a complete-game effort.

Gabe Smith went three innings and was charged with the loss. Smith allowed seven runs on three hits and three walks to go with three strikeouts. Zach Flattmann went 2-for-2 to lead Natchez at the plate.

“I could not ask for a better team. I couldn’t ask for better parents. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids,” Farmer said.

“Sad, sad, sad to end it this way. We’re a better team than we showed today. We should be playing next week. That’s the best 12, and if I had to pick them again, I’d pick them tomorrow.”