The Vicksburg Bandits blitzed their way into the championship round of the 8-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup on Saturday. When they get there, there just might be a few familiar faces waiting.

Tyler Sanders went 3-for-3 with two triples and three RBIs, Seth Sterling was 3-for-3 with three RBIs, and Adam Francisco hit a two-run home run as the Bandits hammered the West Monroe Bash Brothers 16-2 in their final pool play game.

The victory gave the Bandits the No. 1 seed in today’s championship round. They’ll face the Outlaws today at 12:45 p.m.

“We’re playing extremely well,” Bandits coach Joe Graves said. “I’m glad everybody got a chance to watch this game. Now everybody’s got to say, ‘what do we have to do to beat this group?’ We’re just going to keep pounding the baseball, put pressure on the defense and let our kids work and do their job, we’re going to be OK.”

The No. 2 seed in the championship round went to the Mississippi Jammers, another Vicksburg-based team. The Jammers, a 7-year-olds’ team playing up an age group this weekend, scored 31 runs in their two pool play games and beat the Vicksburg Volcanos in an elimination game Saturday afternoon.

The Jammers face the Bash Brothers in another elimination game today at 2:15. The 8-year-olds’ championship game is scheduled to begin at 3:45.

Graves was hoping both his team and the Jammers could remain on their collision course and give the championship game a Vicksburg flavor.

“That’d be nice to have two Vicksburg teams playing,” Graves said. “We need to have as many Vicksburg teams successful and winning championships as we can.”

The Bandits will come into the championship round well-rested. They made short work of the Bash Brothers, winning via the mercy rule in just 31⁄2 innings, then had the rest of the day off.

The Bandits scored six runs in the second inning to take a 9-1 lead. Carter Magee had an RBI double in the inning and Francisco followed with his two-run inside-the-park home run to deep center field. Sanders hit the first of his two RBI triples three batters later and scored on an RBI single by Sterling.

Sanders added another RBI triple in the bottom of the third inning and Floyd Davenport had an RBI double as the Bandits tacked on seven more runs.

In all, the Bandits had 19 hits. They also turned two double plays in a strong defensive performance. In their two pool play games, the Bandits scored 32 runs. They beat the Monroe Tigers 16-8 in their opening game Friday night.

“We’re still not hitting it on all cylinders, but I’ll take it,” Graves said with a laugh. “What I like about it is, we’re hitting the ball from No. 1 to No. 10. Everybody is hitting the ball. It’s going to be hard for coaches to watch us and predict what we do because we hit the ball everywhere.”