Even before the sixth inning started Sunday afternoon, it looked as if it were over. The Vicksburg Bandits trailed the Hard Knox Viperz 5-1 and couldn’t seem to generate any offense for the majority of the day. The only run the Bandits could scrape together came after Jake Brister scored on a wild pitch, but other than that the bats were virtually silent. 

They soon snapped awake with a jolt in the bottom of the sixth, as the Vicksburg squad pieced together four runs to dramatically tie the game, sending the crowd into a frenzy and the game into extra innings.

But the Bandits were unable to capitalize on the momentum and fell to the Vipers 11-5 in 7 innings to claim second place in the Governor’s Cup under-8 division Sunday.

“I’ve been proud of them all year. They just played a great tournament,” Bandit coach Kevin Magee said. “To fight back today like they did, I thought that was very awesome. It just wasn’t enough.”

Vicksburg was able to scratch across one run on a passed ball and another on an error in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 5-3. The two tying runs came moments later, when a throwing error plated Justin Hasty and Tristan Wilbanks to knot the game at 5 and force an extra inning.

Official tournament rules for extra inning play involve the hitting team to start the inning with the bases loaded. When the Vipers came up to bat for the top half of the seventh, they exploded for six crucial runs that would become the eventual game winners.

“To come back the way they did was great, but that format they use in extra innings, it can either be great or bad, and it was horrible for us,” Magee said.

But Magee attributed the win to the Hard Knox defense, which stymied his club all afternoon and kept the Vipers in the contest.

“The Vipers played great all day, played great defense. I was very impressed with their defense,” he said. “Those boys played some good ball today.”