The Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association (PEFYA) Majors all-star team defeated the Buckingham County All-Stars 9-5 Monday evening to improve to 2-1 in the 2019 Dixie Youth Baseball Major League State Tournament at Lenhart Field in Victoria.

The elimination game against Buckingham began Sunday afternoon but was halted in the fifth inning by lightning, with rain pushing the conclusion until Monday evening.

The victory put PEFYA in an 8 p.m. game Tuesday against the Prince George All-Stars, the only unbeaten team remaining in the tourney.

The Prince Edward-Farmville boys suffered a difficult start to the state tourney when they fell 10-3 to the Goochland all-star team Friday after leading 3-2 going into the fifth inning.

“Defensively and pitching-wise we kind of fell apart,” PEFYA Majors Manager Mark Simon said. “We had errors. We walked some people, and it just snowballed, and we couldn’t recover from it. We played a much better game than what the score indicated, but you’ve got to finish it. You’ve got to play six innings, not five.”

This loss set up a rematch with the Blackstone All-Stars, the team the PEFYA boys defeated to win the District 5 tournament. In the fourth meeting between the two teams, PEFYA won 12-2 on Saturday.

Simon said he was most proud of how his players bounced back from Friday’s loss.

“They had every reason in the world to come out here and hang their heads today,” he said Saturday. “They came back nicely and responded, and we finally, finally got our bats going, which has been a long time waiting. This is really the first game where I felt like we actually hit the ball the way we’re capable of.”

Noah Boehmer had two hits and two runs scored, Clevante Watkins hit a home run that put the team ahead for good, Josh Simon went 2-for-2 with a run scored, Harold Landis had a hit and two runs scored, M.J. Holman recorded a big hit and scored twice, and Leighton Folz had two runs scored.

Manager Simon also offered some special praise for Austin Morgan, who pitched all four innings played.

“He was probably throwing the ball five to seven miles an hour slower than he usually does, and I don’t know if it was nerves or what,” he said of Morgan. “Pitching’s weird. Some days you come out and you’re blazing it as hard as you ever have, and another day, you just can’t get it going. But to me, the sign of a good pitcher is the one who can go out there and get it done even when they don’t have their best stuff, and that’s what Austin did today. He did not have his best stuff, but he pitched, threw strikes and trusted his defense and did a beautiful job.”