The Vicksburg Venom was two outs away from a trip to the semifinals of the Cal Ripken 9-year-olds’ Southwest Regional.

Instead, they ended up getting a trip home.

The Little Rock (Ark.) Junior Deputies scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Sunday night to beat the Venom 5-4 in the first game of the regional’s championship round.

The stunning loss eliminated the Venom, who won two games on Saturday to advance out of pool play.

&#8220I thought we were as good as anybody up there,” Venom coach Todd Boolos said. &#8220Sometimes in a game between two evenly-matched teams, it seems like it just comes down to a little luck and which way the ball bounces. I’m very proud of the kids and how well they played.”

Brooks Boolos had a single, double and RBI, and Lee Simpson had a double for the Venom. The team from Vicksburg left runners on second and third in the fifth inning, however, missing a chance to expand a 4-2 lead.

It came back to haunt them.

In the bottom of the sixth, Little Rock got two runners on with one out. Dylan Hays hit a blooper to right that rolled all the way to the fence for a triple, allowing both runners to score and tying the game at 4-4.

Dylan Thomas followed with the walk-off hit, a line drive single to center that brought in the winning run.