St. Mary Central gets opening game win

District 3 champion St. Mary Central squeaked out a 10-9 win against District 8 runner-up Jackson Parish Friday afternoon in the Louisiana Dixie Youth South Regional Minors 10-year-old tournament in Morgan City. Morgan City is also hosting the Dixie Youth North Regional Minors tournament simultaneously at Cypress Park and Complex Park adjacent fields. Action is scheduled to continue through Tuesday.
Host Morgan City and District 3 runner-up Franklin are competing in the North Regional bracket, where they both suffered first round loses. Morgan City dropped its game to District 8 champion Rapides East, 12-2 and Franklin lost to District 5 champion Monroe, 19-4.
St. Mary Central will play in the South’s winner’s bracket at 5:30 p.m. Saturday while Franklin will play at 1 p.m. and Morgan City will play at 3 p.m., also on Saturday.
The tournaments are double elimination.
Other teams in the North Regional Tournament are District 2 runner-up Lakeshore, District 7 runner-up South Beauregard, District 4 champion Shreveport Americans and District 5 third-place finisher Winnsboro.
Other teams in the South Regional Tournament are District 4 runner-up Blanchard, District 6 champion Gonzales Americans, District 7 third-place finisher Mamou, District 2 champion Pontiff, District 5 runner-up West Monroe and District 7 champion Ville Platte.
The winners of the North and South regionals will meet next weekend for a best-of-three state championship series in Ruston.