The Lunenburg County Youth Baseball League (LCYBL) All-Stars completed their undefeated run in the 2018 Dixie Youth Baseball Machine Pitch All-Star District 5 Tournament on June 26 with a 17-8 come-frombehind victory over the Blackstone All-Stars in Victoria.

As the celebration ensued, LCYBL All-Stars Manager Brian Nowlin said he was happy for his 12 players.

“They worked really hard,” he said. “The team has improved a lot from the first practice we had till now, and like I told them, they’ve all been good teammates, good kids, they’ve cheered each other on. You don’t hear them griping about playing here or where I’m batting or any of that stuff, so they’ve all been really good kids, and that’s a tribute to the parents as well.”

The Lunenburg boys were remarkably dominant during their five-game tournament run, outscoring their opponents 67-13 and averaging 13.4 runs per game on offense.

The closest game for the LCYBL All-Stars came June 24 when they struggled offensively against the Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association All-Star team but managed to win 8-2.

In the championship game, Lunenburg was facing a Blackstone team that it had routed 14-2 on June 23, but Blackstone’s all-stars showed their quality and presented the LCYBL All-Stars with the first major adversity they had experienced in the tournament — a 5-0 deficit. Lunenburg responded, but so did Blackstone, which still held a 7-3 lead after 2.5 innings. Then in the third inning, the LCYBL All- Star team scored the maximum allowable per-inning total of seven runs to claim a 10-7 lead.

“They got the momentum back, kept their composure, got some outs, and we were able to put it away there at the end,” Nowlin said. Highlighting the key to his team’s big rally, he added, “I think the biggest thing was we remained calm. They didn’t really panic.”

The LCYBL All-Stars will return to action in the 2018 Dixie Youth Baseball Machine Pitch All-Star State Tournament on Friday in South Hill against the Clarksville All-Star team.