Nine-year-old Tyler Smith faced one of the toughest, pressure-packed situations any pitcher could face: home team batting with the bases-loaded in the last inning of a tie game, only one out, and a state championship on the line.

The standout pitcher for the Vicksburg Venom, a Cal Ripken All-Star team, had just hit a batter to allow the tying run to score. The next batter quickly got ahead with a 3 ball, 1 strike count.

&#8220It was real nervous,” Smith said. &#8220If I don’t throw strikes – they (Oak Grove) win.”

Smith threw strikes.

&#8220He gets the second strike, and then on the 3-2, he gets the batter to hit to the left of him. Tyler dives, gets up, and gets the force out at the plate. That gives us two out,” Venom coach Sherman Simpson said.

&#8220Then, the next kid hits it hard to the right of him. The ball bounces over to Brooks (Boolos) at short and he’s able to tag the runner out for the third out. Tyler Smith has just gotten us out of a big, big jam,” Simpson said.

The Venom went on to score two runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 6-4 lead. Lane Hynum pitched two scoreless innings of relief to lift the Venom to the state championship, the second for the team this summer. The Venom also won the USSSA state championship. In that tournament, the Venom outscored its opponents 64-12.

The dual titles is a first for a Vicksburg youth baseball team.

&#8220No other team has done it from Vicksburg,” said Boolos, who plays short and pitches for the Venom. &#8220The Ripken Tournament was a pretty serious challenge. To go eight innings in the final game was pretty tough. But the umps were making it tough on us. They had a really tight strikezone.”

Liam Hopson added, &#8220It was way fun to win two state titles in a summer.”

Next up for the Venom is a trip to the Cal Ripken 9-year-olds’ Southwest Regional in Crossett, Ark. The 16-team tournament begins Friday.

&#8220We play three pool games over Friday and Saturday and then they take the top two teams from each pool and then play it out,” Sherman Simpson said.

Playing in a Southwest Regional is nothing new for this crop of Venom players. Last year, they played six games in an 8-year-olds’ regional tournament in Van Buren, Ark.

&#8220That was a pretty tough tournament because we were the only team there who had played coach-pitched,” Lee Simpson said.

&#8220Yeah, but we still got us a couple of wins,” Smith added. &#8220We went 4-2.”

This summer, the Venom has had plenty of chances to hone its game. The Ripken state tournament was the team’s seventh of the season.

&#8220We played two here, one in Byram, one in Canton, one in North Jackson, the USSSA state in Louisville and the Ripken state in Brandon,” Sherman Simpson said. &#8220The two state tournaments are the only ones we’ve won. We have finished second three times. One of those was in the Byram tournament which was for 10-year-olds but we played up in age in that one. The Canton Fury, which is a select team, beat us in the two tournaments here.”

Dale Griffith and Smith are the two primary starters. Smith pitched 16 innings in the Ripken state tournament. He went 2-0 with one no decision in the state title game.

After Smith and Griffith, Boolos and Hynum come in.

The rest of the team’s lineup has John Austin Burris at catcher, Lee Simpson at third base, Landon Little, Brayden Stokes and Matt Register in the outfield. Griffith is at first when he doesn’t pitch, while Boolos is at short, and Hynum is at second. Liam Hopson is the utility player.

The Venom are the only Vicksburg team to qualify for a Ripken Regional.

The Vicksburg Gators and the St. Aloysius Flashes will be the host teams for the eight-team Babe Ruth Southwest Regional which begins Friday at Bazinsky Field.

The Vicksburg Storm, a 14-year-olds’ team, is still alive in a rain-plagued USSSA World Series in Pineville, La.

Vicksburg’s 15-year-old Babe Ruth all-stars were eliminated this week at the state tournament at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson.