The Buckingham County Youth League (BCYL) has fielded a remarkably strong group of all-star teams in 2017, and Tuesday, the organization’s Minor League All-Star squad became its third district champion of the year.

Already having earned District 4 titles were the BCYL T-ball and Coach Pitch All-Star teams.

The BCYL Minors went 3-0 this week in the District 4 Dixie Youth Baseball AAA Minor League All-Star Tournament in Buckingham, outscoring their opponents 41-12 on their way to the title.

“I feel pretty good about them,” BCYL Minors Manager Troy Wooten said of his players, noting many of them have been together since the Coach Pitch level two years prior. “They know each other pretty well, and they play well, too, so that’s always good.”

The squad won the district championship game 17-4 against the Goochland All-Star team in four innings Tuesday at Gene Dixon Sr. Memorial Park.

“We pitched well,” Wooten said Wednesday, “and all through the tournament, we played excellent defense, but especially yesterday, the hitting was really on for our team. We had three home runs in the game.”

Hitting the homers were Micah Wilson, Ben Dorrier and Avery Schaeffer.

The BCYL Minors were fresh off two blowout victories, one of which was against the same Goochland team the day before, leaving Buckingham coaches wary of a possible letdown in intensity for the title game.

“I think that was probably our game we were most nervous about, because we pretty much rolled through so far,” Wooten said, adding that the game was also played at noon, and it was quite hot.

But he said that after getting through the second inning, his team started coming to life.

In the fourth inning, the BCYL Minors pulled away with nine runs.

Schaeffer aided his team greatly on the mound, pitching two innings and throwing three strikeouts, keeping his pitch count under 40.

On Monday, Buckingham topped Goochland 12-3 in what Wooten said was probably his team’s best defensive game so far.

“We hit the ball well, too, but the defense really stood out on that one,” he said. “We turned three double plays within that game.”

Kayne Wooten pitched three innings, throwing four strikeouts, allowing only one walk and keeping his pitch count under 40.

“If you go over 40, you have to take 36 hours rest,” Manager Wooten said.

The BCYL Minors opened their tourney run with a 12-5 victory over the Amelia All-Star team.

Wooten said his players “had a little bit of jitters” since it was their opening tournament, “but once they got keyed in, they did a lot better. We had a few errors in the beginning of the game that cost us a few runs.”

Buckingham’s offense started strong, though, scoring four runs in the first inning before cooling off in the second and third.

“But then we came back in the third and the fourth inning, scored five runs total between the two,” Wooten said. “And then the defense kind of shut it down then.”

Wilson aided the offense with a home run.

Schaeffer pitched two innings, throwing 37 pitches, including three strikeouts.

The BCYL Minors now advance to the State Dixie Youth Baseball AAA Minor League All-Star Tournament in Appomattox starting July 21.