The Lunenburg County All-Star baseball team took a close game against the Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association All-Stars on Saturday and made it a blowout to start its run in the Dixie Youth District 5 Minor League All-Star Tournament in Victoria.

Lunenburg poured in seven runs during the fifth inning to pull away for a 13-3 victory.

“I was real proud of them,” Lunenburg Manager Carl Ashworth said of his players. “Four weeks of work, this is a culmination of what we’ve got. They came out, they played well in every avenue — defense, offense and pitching held up really good.”

Ryan Allard gave his team an early edge with three innings of outstanding play on the mound. He threw 38 pitches, 25 of which were strikes, and he finished with five strikeouts.

“Once he got there with that rhythm, it’s hard to handle, and it’s hard to take him out, too, but I’ve got to plan for the next day,” Ashworth said.

Maki Tucker pitched the last three innings of the game and also did well, making strikes out of 23 of his 39 pitches. He finished with two strikeouts.

On offense, Tucker led his team with three runs batted in, while Allard had two and Conner Mattox and Jordan Jackson had one apiece.

Tucker, Mattox, Trey Inman and Hunter Word each scored two runs.

“We’re hoping that we can take this now, the first win — which is always the toughest — and we can move on and just continue to win a game at a time,” Ashworth said.

The Blackstone All-Stars make their debut in the tournament when they face Lunenburg on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Victoria.