MC 12s in south regional championship game

Morgan City 12-year-old All-Stars powered past the Minden Continental, 16-8, Monday to advance the championship game of the Louisiana Dixie Youth Majors South Regional in Ponchatoula.
Morgan City decked five home runs in the game. The local stars have 10 home runs by six different players in the tournament.
Luke Barbier, Trent Hillen, Gunner Theriot, Matt Mire and Dylan Cornes all homered Monday.
Morgan City jumped out to a 13-1 lead in the fourth inning. The All-Stars batted around in the inning scoring seven runs on seven hits.
It looked like a short night for Morgan City, but Minden had other plans.
Morgan City starter Hillen had mowed down Minden batters for three innings. He gave up just one hit, one run and had six strikeouts. So Morgan City’s coaches pulled him so he could be available for the possible trip to the championship.
Gunner Theriot came on in relief in the bottom of the fourth. Theriot struggled but had Minden down to its last strike but Continental’s batter answered with a two-run home run to make the score 13-5 extending the game for two more innings.
Morgan City then went to Cornes who got Morgan City out of the inning. He pitched 22/3 innings allowing three hits and two runs with two strikeouts.
Morgan City put the pressure right back on Minden scoring three runs in the top of the fifth to push the score to 16-6. The All-Stars had 16 runs on 16 hits at that point in the game.
Minden’s resilient Continentals were down to the last strike again but a Morgan City error kept the game going.
Morgan City didn’t score in the top of the sixth inning. It was the only inning in the game that Minden kept Morgan City off the scoreboard.
Minden made one last push, opening the bottom of the sixth with a home run to close to 16-8. But Morgan City buttoned down to secure the win and a spot in today’s championship game against Ville Platte at 5:30 p.m.
Morgan City beat Ville Platte 7-6 Sunday giving Ville Platte its only loss. Ville Platte will have to beat Morgan City in back-to-back games to wrestle away the south regional championship title.
With a win, Morgan City will move on to play the north regional champion Friday in Alexandra. Winner of the Friday game will become the Dixie Youth state champion.
The leading hitters for Morgan City in Monday’s game were Barbier, 4-for-4 with a home run and four runs scored; Zack Bennett, 3-for-4 with three runs scored; Hillen and Theriot, both 2-for-4 with two run home runs each; Hugh Hamer, Brett Morell and Grant Cheramie, had one hit each. Cornes had one hit — a two-run home run.
KBZE 105.9 will broadcast the south regional championship game at 5:30 p.m. today.
--Staff Report