The Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association (PEFYA) Majors All-Stars won Sunday to join the final three teams in the Dixie Youth Baseball Major League District 5 Tournament, and they joined the final two Monday to automatically qualify for the state tournament.

District 5 will have three teams in the state tournament. One is Lunenburg, the state tourney host team, and the others are the two teams reaching the double-elimination district tournament championship game.

The Blackstone All-Stars beat the Crewe-Burkeville All-Stars on Sunday and defeated them again on Monday, PEFYA’s off day, to shrink the field to two.

Prince Edward-Farmville and Blackstone were set to play the championship game Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Dinwiddie Sports Complex in Sutherland.

The PEFYA boys reached the final three in the five-team district tournament by eliminating the Charlotte County all-star team Sunday with a 12-7 win, rebounding well from their first loss Saturday. Prince Edward-Farmville Manager Mark Simon said he felt great about his team’s play.

“The kids bounced back after a loss and showed a lot of guts, a lot of courage,” he said Sunday. “That’s all I can ask from them. They’ve worked hard all summer, been working hard their whole baseball careers for these moments right here, and it was beautiful. They had every reason to come out and be down and hang their heads from a tough loss yesterday after an eight-inning game, and they came out and stepped right up and played beautifully — scored eight runs in the first inning.”

Then, like they did in their first game Friday against PEFYA, the Charlotte All-Stars came back.

“Charlotte roared back, made it 8-7, and then I ran out of pitches with (Harold) Landis and put in (Barrett) Motter, and all of a sudden, everything just flipped,” Simon said. “Motter was throwing strikes, the defense played beautifully, Motter threw three scoreless innings.”

The manager said, “Motter is the Player of the Game, in my opinion, for coming in there and getting the job done. He’s not been a pitcher his whole life. He’s just learning how to pitch this year, and he just came in there in the toughest and the most important of situations and got it done. I don’t usually ever give out game balls, but I gave him one tonight.”

Simon highlighted multiple players on offense, including Jack Jones.

“He has been in the bottom three batters,” the manager said. “I haven’t had him in the top nine yet, and I decided to make a change today and put him in the top nine.”

Jones responded with a single, a scored run, and he also automatically reached base after getting hit by a pitch.

“So he got on base two out of three times and scored a run, so that was big,” Simon said.

Noah Boehmer recorded a double, scored two runs and was also hit by a pitch.

Landis went 1-for-1 at the plate, hitting a single. He also drew two intentional walks and had two runs scored. As a pitcher, he threw four strikeouts in three innings.

Motter also had a strikeout.

“I’ve been telling these pitchers all along, ‘You guys have a great defense behind you,’” Simon said. “‘All you’ve got to do is throw strikes. Throw strikes, make them hit the ball, and we will take care of the rest,’ and that’s what happened today after those first three innings.”

Earlier that day, the manager reflected briefly on his team’s 7-5 loss to Blackstone in eight innings Saturday.

“We walked 11 people and hit two — tough to win like that,” he said.

On Friday, PEFYA opened its all-star run with a 10-5 victory over Charlotte in what Simon said “was an extremely good team effort.”

Boehmer and Landis scored two runs apiece to lead the offense.

“Landis pitched three great innings,” Simon said. “Barrett Motter pitched three strong innings for us and all-around good effort on defense.”

Evaluating his team’s overall performance, Simon said, “(I) absolutely love it. I can’t think of 12 kids I’d rather go to battle with than those 12 right there. I love them all. They’re all good kids. They all have good attitudes, and … some of them are just unreal athletes.” 

The 2019 Dixie Youth Baseball Major League State Tournament is set to begin July 5 in Lunenburg County.