Five years ago this month, Aaron Jarabica moved his family from New Orleans to escape the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. While many of the New Orleans natives returned, Jarabica felt Vicksburg would be a fine place for his two younger boys to grow up and play baseball.

This week’s Governor’s Cup Tournament proved to be a good place for his youngest son, Morgan, to learn about playing at a higher level.

“This is the first time this group of kids have been put together for the Governor’s Cup. We play in the VBA League and I guess you could say this was an All-Star team that formed up after the season ended,” Jarabica said.

When Jarabica moved to Vicksburg, Morgan was in the first grade.

“I had kids in the first, fourth and 10th grades. My daughter stayed in New Orleans to play softball but the two boys played here. We felt this was a better place for them. Now, my other son is in the ninth grade and he’s on the Warren Central junior varsity team. And for Morgan, we kind of put this team together. We may have gotten beat, but the team they played went to the World Series,” Aaron Jarabica said.

Jarabica’s Warren County Warriors played Panther Baseball, a USSSA World Series team, reasonably well in a 5-1 loss in the final game of pool play in the Governors’ Cup 11-year-olds’ tournament. The Warriors went on to face the Vicksburg Sting in an elimination game later Saturday.

The Warriors finished 0-2 in pool play, while the Sting went 1-1.

The Panthers, meanwhile, earned the top seed in the 11s’ bracket after getting the 5-1 win. They beat the Louisiana Legends 14-3 in earlier action to give them two wins and a run-ratio mark of 19-4.

“This is what this tournament is about, to see our pitchers pitch and see our hitters make good swings and we can live with what happens,” said Panthers coach Scott Hollingsworth, whose team finished fourth in the USSSA World Series in Baton Rouge.

The Warriors managed a run off the Panthers in the first inning when Gage Ederington walked, advanced two bases on wild pitches and then scored on an RBI grounder from Chandler Luke.

The Panthers roared back with four runs in the bottom of the first. A.J. Bracey had the first of his three hits to knock in Dillon Green to tie the game at 1. Jimmy Burse doubled to score Bracey and then later scored on a wild pitch for a 3-1 lead.

In other Governor’s Cup action Saturday:

• The Vicksburg Gators’ second stint in the Governor’s Cup ended with a tough 10-7 loss to the top-seeded Militia in bracket play in the 15-year-olds’ division. The Gators took a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the fifth but the Militia rallied for four runs to take the 10-7 win.

• The Vicksburg Siege beat the Madison Majors 7-2 Saturday morning to earn the top seed in the 13-year-olds’ tournament. The Siege will face the River Rats today at 11 a.m. in a semifinal.

The River Rats eliminated the Southern Heat 10-5 in bracket play Saturday night.