By Will Dickins

The 2016 JP Hudson 9-10-year-old Dog Tag Tournament champion is Dash for Cash.   They won the tournament Thursday night, beating NAPA 8-0 and Café Ole 14-1.  

Café Ole started the night off by beating Panola Paper 9-3.  The majority of Café Ole’s points came in the third inning. 

Caston Kirkland, Cam Moore, Landon Willis and Bailey Ceay, all had an RBI each in the inning that resulted in six runs to pull away from Panola Paper.  

Panola Paper answered with two runs from Tucker Bryant and Baylor Pierce, but it was not enough as Café Ole cruised to the 9-3 victory to move on to the championship game.  

Dash for Cash beat NAPA 8-0 in the second semi final game.  

The scoring was highlighted by multi-hit games from Caleb Johnson, Konnor Helms and Braden Whitt.  Johnson scored twice and Grayson Alford followed him up with two runs scored.  

As the rain poured down, Dash for Cash kept finding ways to score.  NAPA could not find a rhythm at the plate and subsequently lost the game 8-0.  

This set up a championship game between Café Ole and Dash for Cash.  

A high scoring game for both teams was anticipated based upon the results of the previous games, but Dash for Cash stayed hot with a 14-1 victory.  

The ball must have looked like a beach ball as they earned 13 hits total. Johnson, Helms, and Alford continued their hot streaks while Whitt joined in with three singles in the game. 

Jarrett Toliver subbed up in the game and hit an inside the park homerun in the fourth and last inning.  Caston Kirkland followed that with a homerun in the same fashion for Café Ole to keep the game from being a shutout.  

The champions of the tournament included: Caleb Johnson, Konnor Helms, Grayson Alford, Braden Whitt, Gage Bryant, Jarrett Tolliver, Devin Washington, Levi Daniel, Landon Morris, and Bailey Williams.