Resilience became a calling card for the Lunenburg County Youth Baseball League (LCYBL) Minors All-Star team during the district tournament in Keysville, and they carried that tradition on to the state tournament despite going 0-2 in the Appomattox-hosted event.

The LCYBL Minors lost by one to the Halifax All-Star team Friday, and they fell 8-7 to the Hopewell All-Star team Saturday in the State Dixie Youth Baseball AAA Minor League All-Star Tournament.

Lunenburg Manager Gerald Hooton said his players gave a lot of effort in Appomattox just like they did all season long.

“They’ve really put in the hard work, and they had to come back in each of these games, and they did it,” he said,” but added that “being the visiting team, (they) just couldn’t come back all the way.”

In Saturday’s game, Hopewell jumped out to a 3-1 lead, but Lunenburg crept back and eventually took a 4-3 advantage. Hopewell went back up 6-4 late in the game.

Hayden Gary, Ryan Allard, Conner Abernathy, Parker Hite and Landon Hall contributed to give the LCYBL Minors a 7-6 lead in the sixth and final inning. Hopewell was able to answer in the bottom half of the inning, though, getting the two runs it needed to win.

Hooton highlighted Allard for his play both on the mound and at the plate, and he added that Gary stood out at the catcher position and was remarkably consistent on offense.

The manager praised his entire team for its strong hitting.

“These guys are real gutsy,” he said of his all-stars who went 3-4 overall. “At the beginning of the year, I knew they were good hardworking kids because I’d seen all of them during the year, but through the district, I didn’t realize until we started playing there how gutsy they were and how they were out to win.”

He also made a point to thank his assistant coaches and all the parents for their help and support.