Two teams from Barrow County entered their weekend Dizzy Dean All-Star baseball tournaments with high hopes.

Neither won district championships, but the 14-and-under team snuck into the state tournament draw despite losing twice Sunday.

Barrow’s 14-year-olds were matched up with a team of 13-year-olds from Jefferson in a winner’s bracket quarterfinal Sunday starting at noon, and they had a 4-3 lead in the fifth inning behind the pitching of Alex Visbal.

Head coach Dana Brown had to pull Visbal due to a restriction on the number of innings he could pitch, and disaster set in for Barrow. Jefferson scored 11 runs in the final two innings, cruising away for a 15-6 victory.

Since Dizzy Dean tournament games are played without time limits, the game with Jefferson lasted more than three hours. Brown said the team had only 10 minutes before they had to take on Union County, which had had more than an hour to rest in between their games.

They still nearly beat Union to earn a matchup with the other Jefferson team – Jefferson’s 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds met in the semifinal, with the junior team winning the game – coming back from down 7-3 with four in the top of the sixth for a one-run lead. Nick Duplontis hit an RBI single and Visbal rapped a two-run double, then scored on Tyler Shipp’s single.

Ace pitcher Justin Jonte, pitched three innings in Friday night’s 15-0 win over Banks County then pitched seven innings in a high school summer league game Saturday, came in to try to hand on, but Barrow had run out of steam. Union County pounced on Jonte, scoring four runs to take an 11-8 lead, which would eventually be the final margin.

“If we were rested like they were rested, I think we would have won,” Brown said.

The team will represent Barrow County at the state tournament in Cartersville starting July 10.

The 8-and-under coach pitch team from Barrow County won’t see any more postseason action. Errors in the field cost them their first-round game with host Dawson County Friday night, then they fell Saturday morning in a consolation-bracket game to Fannin County.