Banding together for the last time, the Southern Rebels went out on top, winning the Governor’s Cup for the third straight year.

Paced by a handful of players from Warren Central along with key tournament pick-ups from Monroe in Ashton Hughes and Will Hardy, the Rebels beat the Vicksburg Benchwarmers 4-2 to win the Cup’s 16-year-olds’ division Sunday afternoon at Bazinsky Field.

&#8220We didn’t play as many tournaments this year, but it was good to get together with these guys because they’re friends,” said Carroll, who scored two runs including the game-winner on a two-run double in the fifth inning by Zack Polzin.

&#8220We’ve only been able to play one other tournament this summer because it’s been hard to work around their high school schedule,” said Rebels coach Todd Ridgeway. &#8220But four years, they’ve been a great bunch. We started out with them as 12’s and we’ve gone 176-43 against some of the best competition in the world.”

Polzin’s hit capped a three-run rally that erased a 2-1 lead by Vicksburg and it came against a former Southern Rebel teammate in Andrew Brown.

&#8220I played with them last year and we won the (USSSA) World Series in St. Louis,” Brown said. &#8220We were supposed to play some more tournaments with them this summer but couldn’t get together. That’s why I wanted to pitch against them today.”

Brown was effective for four innings, allowing just two hits and one first inning run until the fifth.

Polzin, a catcher from Northwest Rankin, made it 3-2 with his double. WC’s Chris Whittington followed with an RBI single to score Will Hardy for a 4-2 lead.

That was enough for Hughes, the tournament MVP. He nailed down the win by retiring the last nine batters faced. Hughes, a Sterlington High product, was limited to just two games with the Rebels after finishing up play in the Dixie Pre-Majors World Series in North Charleston, S.C.

He relieved Whittington in the fourth and allowed only a bad-hop single to Ryan Ferrington to lead off the fifth. Ferrington reached third after a pair of ground outs but was left there when Sean Weaver lined out to second to end the threat.

Hughes then led off the bottom half of the fifth with a triple to set in motion the three-run rally.

The Benchwarmers, who won three games in Cup play, were led by Brown who had a hit, a run scored and pitched 4 2/3 innings. Josh Hill, of Porters Chapel Academy, knocked Brown in with a hit to center off Whittington in the second.

Weaver scored the other Vicksburg run in the third when he singled and then came in on Jared Thames’ fly out to center.