The Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association (PEFYA) Majors all-star team completed its comeback from the loser’s bracket Wednesday night, defeating the Blackstone All-Stars for the second straight day to claim the 2019 Dixie Youth Baseball Major League District 5 Tournament championship in Sutherland.

“It means everything for me because of what it means for them,” PEFYA Majors Manager Mark Simon said, referring to his players. He commended them for their hard work.

Prince Edward-Farmville, which went 4-1 in the district tourney, suffered its only loss Saturday in extra innings against Blackstone, and Wednesday, the PEFYA boys trailed 8-6 going into the sixth and final inning. They were able to add four more runs in the top of the inning, and their defense held firm after that to secure a 12-6 victory.

Praising Blackstone, Simon said, “Every game they played in they were losing and came back and won, so we never really felt all that comfortable until it was over.”

Harold Landis, who won the batting championship for the tournament with an average better than .600, finished Wednesday’s game with three hits and two runs scored. Noah Boehmer also had three hits and two runs, Josh Simon had two hits and two RBIs, Leighton Folz had multiple hits and two runs scored, and M.J. Holman scored two runs.

“It was another balanced attack up and down the board,” Manager Simon said. “That was the theme for the tournament. Everybody contributed.”

Blackstone took a 3-0 lead in the first inning off of a three-run homer. Simon blamed himself for the setback, saying he should not have called the pitch that he did.

Landis, who got the start on the mound, settled down after that, the manager said, and finished with six strikeouts for the game before being relieved by Barrett Motter, who went on to throw three more strikeouts.

“Barrett Motter again came in, pitched beautifully, threw strikes, let his defense do the work, so he gets a lot of credit too for coming in and doing well,” Simon said. “All three outings, he came in and pitched very well.”

Landis, Motter and Austin Morgan all played key roles on the mound during the tourney, helping the PEFYA Majors succeed even as one of their top pitchers, Josh Simon, was sidelined from pitching by a shoulder injury.

The manager praised his team’s clutch defense all over the field.

“That was the key to us being able to win this tournament was our defense,” he said.

The other key, Manager Simon noted, came prior to Prince Edward-Farmville playing its first game in the tourney that it was considered a favorite to win.

“I believe this might be my fifth PEFYA all-star team that I’ve been the head coach of, and I’ve had a couple of other seasons where I’ve been the assistant coach, and I can promise you that this is the first time I have ever gone through an entire practice season leading up to the all-star tournament where not one single kid missed a practice,” Simon said. “Every single kid was at every single practice. I’ve never experienced that before, and that right there is a hats off to their parents and their relatives who are helping them out and getting them to these practices and stuff, because the kids want to be there all the time. The kids don’t want to miss. It takes the work of their parents.”

Simon said this faithfulness in practice is “a big part of why we were able to be successful, because of the hard work not just from the kids but from the families too.”

On Tuesday, looking to avenge their 7-5 loss to Blackstone in eight innings Saturday, the PEFYA All-Stars edged Blackstone 3-2 with a clutch play in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Boehmer hit the ball hard, it got past the second baseman, and he reached second. He raced to third on a passed ball, and Landis hit a clean shot to center field that scored Boehmer to win the game.

Simon highlighted the play of Morgan on the mound.

“He actually pitched really well in the game that we lost against Blackstone the first time, and he came back yesterday and threw five innings of no earned runs,” Simon said Wednesday. “They scored two runs, but they were unearned on an error.”

This meant Landis did not have to take the mound until the final inning.

“Harold came on in the sixth inning and walked the first two batters and then got three outs in a row to hold those two runs on to keep us at a tie so we could win it in the sixth,” Simon said.

The manager praised the stellar defensive play of Clevante Watkins at shortstop and M.J. Holman in center field.

The PEFYA Majors now move on to the 2019 Dixie Youth Baseball Major League State Tournament in Lunenburg County. They are set to play the Goochland all-star team on Friday, July 5, at 2 p.m. at Lenhart Field in Victoria.