The Lunenburg Girls Softball Belles All-Star team fell 10-4 to the undefeated Crewe-Burkeville All-Stars on Monday night, ending its run in the Dixie Youth District I Belles All-Star Tournament in Crewe.

Lunenburg went 1-2 in the tourney, finishing in third. It was facing a Crewe-Burkeville team on Monday that won the state championship last year, made it to the Dixie Youth World Series and has been dominant during the present tournament, notching one mercy-rule win after another.

“We took them to seven innings,” Lunenburg Manager Charles Berkley said, noting that a couple of errors and hits along Crewe-Burkeville to accumulate some runs in the sixth. “It was good defense by both teams and good pitching by both teams through the top five innings, and then of course, the sixth inning was the breakaway for Crewe.”

The Clarksville All-Stars and Crewe-Burkeville advanced to play for the district championship. They were the only teams to beat Lunenburg in the tournament.

After opening its play in the tournament with a 12-2 loss to Clarksville on Friday, Lunenburg defeated the Dinwiddie County All-Stars 16-6 on Sunday.

Berkley pointed out a variety of standouts for his team from during the tournament.

“Kaylee Williams played extraordinarily good defense and had a very strong bat,” he said of his center fielder. “Brittany Tomlinson pitched two great ballgames, winning one, losing one.”

He said Taylor Berkley played well at the plate and was strong as a second baseman.

“Emma Hart was very strong at third base,” he said. “I think she only had one error the whole tournament.”

He also said that Hart had several clutch hits as the team’s clean-up hitter.

“There was strong play by our utility player, Haley Hayer,” he said. “She played some infield, outfield and behind the plate, catching.”

Riley Long was a stalwart at catcher, Samantha Bishop made some impressive catches in left field, and first baseman Rachel Moore generated some key hits, the coach said.

“I thought this team played very well,” he said. “It’s a good group of young ladies. Most of these girls are only 14-, 15-year-old girls, and I thought they did a great job. We were just a couple plays away from being able to be in the championship game.”