When it comes to the Governor’s Cup, the Vicksburg Hurricanes are a Category 4.

Darrick White scored three runs, Pierson Waring hit a key two-run homer to spark a five-run rally in the fifth inning, and the Hurricanes beat the Mississippi Diamond Dogs 7-4 on Sunday for the 14-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup championship.

It was the fourth Cup title in six years for the Hurricanes, who came together as a 7-year-olds’ tournament team in 1999 and won their first Governor’s Cup trophy in 2001. The Hurricanes also finished first in their age brackets in 2003 and 2005.

&#8220These kids have devoted hundreds of hours to this. They made the choice a long time ago to practice three or four times a week, come out here on Sunday, hit hundreds of balls a week. They put the work in and they deserve this,” Hurricanes coach Darrell Evans said. &#8220They’re a special bunch of kids. Nine of these kids have been playing together since they were seven.”

This Governor’s Cup may have been the last for the Hurricanes. Most of the team will be playing for their respective high school teams next summer, and Evans wasn’t sure if they would get back together for the 2007 Governor’s Cup.

If it was indeed their swan song on the Halls Ferry Park fields, they went out in grand style.

The Hurricanes outscored their opponents 48-9 in four games this weekend. The championship game was the only one in which they failed to score at least 12 runs or allowed more than two.

After blitzing through the White Sox 12-2 in the semifinals earlier on Sunday afternoon, the Hurricanes set their sights on a tough Diamond Dogs team that had been nearly as dominant. The matchup was the close battle most people expected – at least for a while.

White scored from second on an infield error in the first inning and on a passed ball in the third to help the Canes to a 2-1 lead.

&#8220My job was to get on base and wait for my backup to send me home,” said White, who reached base on a single, error and walk in four at-bats.

Cade Eiland’s RBI double in the fourth tied it, however, heading into the fifth.

White walked to start the fifth for the Hurricanes, and Waring followed with a shot over the left field wall for a 4-2 lead. The Hurricanes drew four more walks in the inning – including one by Colby Key with the bases loaded – to bring in three more runs and stretch the lead to 7-2. The Hurricanes batted around, but Waring’s homer and a two-out single by Jimmie Elliott were their only hits in the inning.

&#8220I think that was something where you could see their shoulders drop. It made a world of difference,” Evans said of Waring’s homer.

Despite being down five runs, the Diamond Dogs didn’t fold. Blake Brown brought in a run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning, and Eiland belted a solo homer in the sixth to make it 7-4.

Both rallies ended in disappointment for the Dogs, though. They left runners at second and third in the fifth inning, then hit into a bases-loaded double play to end the sixth. The Dogs’ No. 3 hitter, Ben Boone, chopped a grounder to Hurricanes’ third baseman Stephen Evans, who threw home to start a 5-2-3 double play.

Another Dogs runner was stranded at third base in the seventh when Brendan Beasley made a sliding catch of Brice Guess’ sinking liner to right field for the game’s final out.

&#8220I think we played well. We hit the ball, but hit it right at them,” Diamond Dogs coach Tim McMillian said. &#8220That double play was probably the play of the game right there. A base hit there and we could have pulled within one with our No. 4 hitter coming up. That’s a great play, and one you don’t see too often on this level.”