The Buckingham County Youth League (BCYL) Majors All-Stars went 0-2 in Oxford Alabama, but it could not sully their first-ever trip to represent Virginia at the Dixie Youth Baseball Major League World Series.

“It was an experience of a lifetime,” BCYL Majors Manager Ben Gormus said. “It really was.”

The World Series may have been more than 500 miles from home for the Buckingham Majors, but the team’s fans did their best to make Oxford, Alabama seem liked home.

“We had an unbelievable support team,” Gormus said, noting that 100 -plus people from the county made the trip to cheer on the BCYL Majors.

As the Virginia squad, the BCYL Majors opened their play in the tournament with a tight contest against Arkansas. They narrowly fell 3-2.

“We lost in the first inning,” Gormus said. “We had four errors in the first inning, and they scored three runs. Our boys were nervous. (Arkansas) scored three unearned runs.”

Virginia outhit Arkansas 7-1.

Justin Gunter threw 91 pitches across four and one-third innings, striking out six batters and allowing only one hit. George Hurt pitched the remained of the game and had two strikeouts.

First baseman Eli Bryant set an outstanding tone for Virginia with his defensive play that resulted in the first out of the game.

After the ball, thrown from the outfield, bounced over the catcher’s head, it also bounced off the backstop. Bryant went to cover home plate.

“He caught the ball barehanded off the wall and dove home around the catcher and tagged the runner out,” Gormus said. “… That was just a heads-up play.”

Virginia began its game against South Carolina on Sunday amid rain, falling behind 3-1 in the first inning before the increasingly inclement weather led to play being suspended until Monday.

“The game shouldn’t have started on Sunday,” Gormus said. “It got terrible. It got so bad my catcher was picking the ball up, and he had a mud ball with him.”

When play resumed Monday, South Carolina pulled away to win 18-4, eliminating Virginia from the double-elimination tourney.

“I won’t take nothing from them,” Gormus said of South Carolina. “They hit everything we (threw) up.”

Despite the loss, there were highlights for Virginia on Monday, as Desmond Vaughan hit a two-run home run and Camden Allen hit a solo homer.

The BCYL Majors finished the summer with a 9-3 overall record, going 4-1 to win the district tournament and 5-0 to win the state tournament for the first time.

Pondering how he will remember this team of boys, Gormus said, “I’ll remember their heart. I remember them playing together. One got down, the other one had them on his back. They played team ball. These boys had heart, and they didn’t believe in getting down and staying down.”

It was a fitting summary for a team that more often than not walked away with a victory after staging a clutch comeback.