Morgan City, St. Mary Central headed for 7- and 8-year-old state tourney

Morgan City’s and St. Mary Central’s 8-year-old All-Star teams will begin play at the Louisiana Dixie Youth 2015 AA State Tournament in Vidalia Thursday.
Morgan City will compete in Bracket D, while St. Mary Central will compete in Bracket A.
There are four brackets in the tournament.
Teams will compete in pool play Thursday through early Saturday afternoon. The top teams from each bracket will advance to bracket play that will begin Saturday evening before concluding Sunday.
Morgan City enters the tournament as the District 3 champion.
They will compete in Bracket D along with the District 5 runner-up, who is not named in the tournament bracket; Benton, Westlake,
Alexandria Americans and Alexandria Nationals.
Morgan City will begin tournament play Thursday with a 5 p.m. contest against the District 5 runner-up.
On Friday, Morgan City will return to the field with a 9 a.m. matchup against Benton before facing Westlake at 12:45 p.m.
The day will conclude for Morgan City when they face Alexandria Americans at 4:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Morgan City will face the Alexandria Nationals at 12:45 p.m.
St. Mary Central, the District 3 runner-up, will compete in Bracket A along with Minden, Pineville Nationals, Moss Bluff Nationals, DeRidder and the third-place team from District 5.
St. Mary Central will begin action Thursday at 5 p.m. when it faces Minden.
On Friday, St. Mary Central will return to the field in a 9 a.m. contest against Pineville Nationals, while they will face the third-place winner from District 5 at 12:45 p.m.
Friday’s action will conclude for St. Mary Central when it faces DeRidder in a 4:30 p.m. contest.
On Saturday, St. Mary Central will face Moss Bluff Nationals at 12:45 p.m.
“Since (the) last tournament, we’ve been having some really good practices concentrating on hitting, concentrating on playing really good defense,” St. Mary Central coach Mark Nini said. “Kids are excited, coaches are excited, parents are excited. We’re looking
forward to having a really good tournament.”
While the competition won’t be easy at state, one thing St. Mary Central does know how to do is respond to adversity when faced with it as the squad, at one point 1-2 in the district tournament, reeled off
back-to-back wins on the final day of the district tournament.
“Once you get to the state tournament, you’re down to 24 teams,
the best 24 teams in the state,” Nini said. “There’s no margin for
errors there. You’ve got to play 100 percent all the time.”
Meanwhile, Morgan City finished 4-1 at the district tournament.
The squad, who in invitational and district play proved to be a force on offense much of the time, has improved since the district tournament, coach Andrew Mancuso said.
“Kids have really worked hard at practice coming off of the district wins,” Mancuso said. “They’re hitting the ball a lot better now all the way through the lineup. Every aspect of the game is improving from the time we started. They’re looking good. I like our chances of competing at the state tournament.”
Mancuso said his team appreciates the fan and parent support they have received and he appreciates the work of his assistant coaches.