The Jackson Parish 10U All-Star team beat Jena 9-4 this past Wednesday to earn the title of 2025 Dixie Youth District 8 tournament champions. And it couldn’t have come any harder.  

By tourney’s end, JP10U played a whopping six games over five days to win the 10-team tournament that was held in Natchitoches, including facing the same team three times and playing twice on two days. 

Jackson Parish opened the tourney by “walking off” Alexandria in an 11-10 thriller by scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally from an early 9-2 deficit. That set up a contest against Pineville, which the locals fell by a 14-5 score that dropped them into the losers’ bracket.

With their backs against the wall, JP10U knuckled down to blast Buckeye 10-0, setting up a rematch with Pineville that saw the locals gain revenge of the early defeat by scoring in every inning for a statement-making 11-3 victory. 

That left Jackson Parish, Pineville, and Jena all with one loss each, forcing tournament officials to go to tie-breaking rules that found Jena earning the bye into the championship game by virtue of having scored the most runs of the three and JP10U and Pineville having to play each other for the third time. 

“I’ve never been in a situation where we had to play the same team three times and not be in the championship game, but that is the way the bracket was drawn up,” said Jackson Parish head coach Dusty Nomey. “I really liked our chances, though, as after the second Pineville game, we were full of confidence and the guys had shown that they simply were not going to be denied.” 

Pineville had other ideas, though….

In the “rubber game,” Pineville quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead, scoring two runs in each of the second and third innings. Then as they had done all tournament, the “Cardiac Kids” as Nomey dubbed his squad started battling back. 

“It all started in the finals of the pre-district tournament we played in the week before,” reflected Nomey. “We established a team identity of never giving up and playing to the end.”

In symbolism of that, before every at bat, the team would gather around coaches Nomey, Railey Garrett, and Lance Seymore and as a unit utter the word GRIND, bringing to mind to stay focused and keep playing hard no matter what the situation.

That mentality was never more evident than in the final three innings of game three against Pineville. With time starting to run out, Jackson Parish started pecking away at the deficit in the bottom of the fourth inning. Maddox Graham opened the frame by stroking a single, followed by Cruz Nomey coaxing a base on balls. That brought up Andrew Seymor,e whose single put Jackson Parish on the board. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Jackson Parish shaved another run off the Pineville lead as Landry Garrett singled and scored following a heady coaching decision. After Garrett took second on a passed ball, Nomey called on Ryder Gray to lay down a bunt, which he did expertly, as the sacrifice moved Garrett to third, leading to him scoring two pitches later on a fly out by Nash Moak to close the gap to 4-2. Gray, who was the complete game winner, then shut down the explosive Pineville lineup for a third straight inning to put Jackson Parish in position to come away with their second “walk-off” victory of the tourney.

Jackson Parish wasted no time in completing the dramatic rally as Graham opened the climactic bottom of the sixth inning with a single and went to third following a Nomey blast to centerfield that ended up as a double. Seymore then singled in a run that sent Nomey to third base. From there, he scampered home on a passed ball that also saw Seymore go all the way to third.  After Sutton Vail drew a walk, Grant Williams slammed a 2-0 pitch past the Pineville third baseman to score Seymore and send the Jackson Parish team and fans into delirium after having completed the improbable three-run rally to secure a spot in the championship game.

“I’ve been around a lot of young guys, but this group is something special,” beamed Nomey. “Pineville has a really good team but our guys simply just don’t quit, no matter what the situation is. It is an honor to be associated with them.”

It was almost as if the championship game was decided before it ever began. With Jackson Parish full to the brim with confidence, Jena never had a chance, even though they probably felt pretty good after scoring a run in the top of the first inning.

All that did was open the floodgates as Jackson Parish quickly established dominance by scoring three runs following Clay Burton opening with a walk, Maddox Graham singling, and Cruz Nomey hitting a second straight double in two games before scoring on an Andrew Seymore groundout. 

The goal of winning the district title became a virtual reality in the bottom of the third, when Jackson Parish took advantage of erratic Jena pitching to plate five more to go up by what turned out to be an insurmountable 8-1 lead. Asher Cooper got the biggest run-scoring inning of the tournament since the Buckeye game started by coaxing a walk on four pitches, followed by Nomey getting plunked and Graham hitting a single to load the bases with no outs. That set up a Seymore single that was followed by both Nomey and Graham scoring on passed balls. After Sutton Vail grounded out to score Seymore with the fourth run of the inning, Hunter Williams drew yet another free pass and then stole his way around the bases for the final run of the frame. Jackson Parish would add another run in their next at bat when Clay Burton smashed a line drive to left field for a triple and Graham singled him home in the next at bat. 

Regional Bound! By virtue of their winning the district title, Jackson Parish qualified for the South Regional Tournament that will be played in Metarie, LA, July 10-13 for the right to earn as spot in the Dixie Youth 10U State Tournament on July 18-19.