LUMBERTON — The Lumberton Youth Baseball Association doesn’t play the majors format of Dixie Youth Baseball during its regular season, instead playing the “O”Zone rules for the 12-and-under age division and putting together a team to compete in the majors tournament when the city hosts the Dixie Youth World Series.

Despite that lack of experience for the majors team playing in this week’s tournament, they’re not the easy out sometimes seen from the host teams in these type of events — and proved that in a 2-0 loss to the Louisiana runner-up Saturday.

“Both of them pitched well, played good defense and made no errors,” Lumberton coach Jonathan Britt said. “We outhit them, we just had one bad inning there that they got two runs there, and then ended that game on that one mishap there, but overall I’m happy for them. They played well and things happen. We’ll come back tomorrow and hopefully be able to move on.

“I think we made a statement tonight. Everybody sees we’re not a pushover; we’ll hang in there and we’re going to be here for a few more days.”

The game was a scoreless tie until the bottom of the fourth, when Louisiana scored two runs on an RBI single by Tre Edmond, with an error that allowed a second run to score; Trey Rocher and Caleb Morrison came home on the play.

Lumberton starter Caiden Hall allowed just one hit over three innings with eight strikeouts.

“He threw the ball great,” Britt said. “He went through three complete innings with 40 pitches; I got him out of there and I’ll let him throw tomorrow. He threw the ball great; I can’t have no complaints with him.”

Lumberton stranded two runners on base in the second and left the bases loaded with one out in the fourth.

Lumberton plays the Alabama runner-up — which lost 24-2 to Virginia Saturday — at 7:45 p.m. Sunday in an elimination game. The Louisiana runner-up plays Virginia at the same hour.

Missed opportunities early lead to “O”Zone loss

For a few innings it looked like Lumberton’s “O”Zone team would also hang tough with the opposition in its role of host team.

But the game slipped away quickly and the result was an 11-1 loss to Texas.

“We’ve been telling them for the last two weeks at practice we’ve got to lock in, we’ve got to have our mind focus on what we’re here to do, which is play in this World Series, and hopefully be able to come out and win the World Series.

“We had perfect opportunities; we had the bases loaded twice in the first four innings and didn’t capitalize. A team like this, when it’s given to you you’ve got to capitalize on it, and we just didn’t do it tonight.”

Texas scored four in the first and added three in the third, one in the fourth and three in the fifth. Ragan Mays and Max Lowe each scored twice.

Lumberton’s Landon Walters scored its only run after he reached on a walk.

Some of the participants on the Lumberton team previously played in the World Series, in 2018 when the city hosted. Some of those players were also a part of a World Series trip last year to Mississippi.

Lumberton, then, has an experience advantage over many.

“We’re here as the host, and people always probably think as the host you’re not here to win because you didn’t win a championship to get here. We’ve actually scrimmaged the North Carolina champions that are here today three times this summer, so we have tried to get ourselves prepared — and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to prove that.”

Lumberton faces elimination when it faces Louisiana at 1 p.m. Sunday; Texas plays South Carolina in the winner’s bracket at 3:30 p.m.

Lumberton AAA dominated by Alabama

While some host teams are competitive, for others the experience of playing in such an event is the prize.

Lumberton’s AAA team lost 16-2 to Alabama Saturday, but that doesn’t mean the team isn’t still enjoying its time in the spotlight.

“They’ve enjoyed a lot of it,” coach Shain Stueck said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity they get to come out here and do this.”

Alabama scored 12 runs in the second inning, all unearned, allowing the team to cruise to a victory.

“One inning that game cost us a lot of runs.” Stueck said. “Once it got out of hand I just started putting people in just to waste pitches. … I have more flexibility tomorrow. Arkansas seemed like a young team, and most of mine are 9 years old too, and they seem like they’re all 9, so it should be a better game.”

Lumberton did not have a hit; Campbell Gabe and Jakob Hammonds scored the team’s runs.

Aiden Eager scored three runs for Alabama; he and Patrick Meador each had two hits.

That Arkansas team — which lost 23-3 to Georgia on Saturday — will face Lumberton in an elimination game at 7:45 p.m. Sunday. Alabama faces Georgia at 3:15 p.m.

Lumberton will face Arkansas — which lost 23-3 to Georgia Saturday — in an elimination game at 7:45 p.m. Sunday. Alabama takes on Georgia at 3:15 p.m.