SOUTHAVEN, Miss. -- If Fall Ball is about making a statement, how’s this for a statement?

  Logan Dorris ended a complete-game effort with four shutout innings. His catcher, Alex Jett, cleared the bases with a double. And the Nashville Legends – a team put together a year ago for fall ball, shocked the Jackson (Tenn.) Coyotes 13-under team 4-2.

  It was a thundering exclamation point to the first day’s action in the USSSA Fall Nationals at Snowden Grove Park. The tournament ends today with championship round action starting at 4 p.m.

  The Coyotes finished the 2008 season ranked 13^th in the TBS national rankings, and finished fifth in the Elite 24 tournament. Competing mostly in 14U brackets this fall, they had only lost twice – both times to the Coyotes’ 14-under squad.

  But after nicking Dorris for a run to make it 2-1 in the bottom of the third … nothing.

  “We just had to keep our focus,” said Dorris, a 12-year-old who mowed down the heart of the order in the seventh after giving up a leadoff walk. “It’s all about focus.”

   The Coyotes left the bases loaded in the third. Then in the fourth, the Legends loaded the an error and a squib pop-up that just managed to land between the mound and second base and a walk on tough lefthander Mat Poteete. Jett then drilled a double down the third base line that drove in two runs. An error on the play led to a third.

  “I knew he was going to try and throw me a breaking ball, so I was sitting on that,” said Jett, whose team had beaten the Mississippi Mustangs 6-2 and the Arkansas Indians Black squad 6-3. “This boosts our confidence..”

  John Roberson, one of the Legends coaches, said, “We’ve played together last fall and this fall, and might stay together in the spring. Tonight is just one win.”

  But after the game he told his team, “They’re a very good team … and so are you.”

   Coyotes’ coach Mike Wickersham said “We’ve worn a lot of 14 teams out this fall, and we’ve been hitting really well. But today I think we might have just thought we could strap it on – and we ran into a team that is well put together, and that young man gave a great pitching effort.”

  Both teams had to come back after a lengthy delay as plate umpire Mike White had to leave the game and be replaced after being hit near the throat with a foul ball. He's sore, but will OK.

  The Legends will meet the 2-1 Memphis Tigers in the semifinals. The other unbeaten team in the 14-team bracket is the Strike Zone Stixx from Ripley, Tenn., which averaged nine runs a game on Saturday. They will take on Sliders Baseball of Jackson, Miss., also 2-1.

  In other first-day action:

  14s – The Chesterville Badgers of Tupelo, Miss. -- basically a brand new team according to coach Bobby Dickerson – got a 5-inning no-hitter from Ryan Moore Friday night against the Bolton Wildcats, and rolled to a 3-0 record Saturday in pool play. The other undefeated team is Team Memphis, while the Mississippi Stars and Team Collierville reach the semifinals with 2-1 marks.

  12s – The Tupelo Rangers and Viper Baseball Academy of Alabama, an honorable mention team in last year’s TBS 11-under rankings, take 2-0-1 record into the final game of round-robin play Sunday in the five-team bracket.  The two teams did so after having the time limit stop their preliminary game at 3-3 after six innings. The Stingers (2-1) could crash the championship game party if they can upend the Rangers in the round robin finale.

  10s – The Memphis Tigers got a long evening’s rest after winning their first two games in the seven-team bracket to get a championship-round bye. The West Tennessee Wildcats needed a third game to reach the semifinals along with the North Alabama Giants and Coyote Baseball, both 2-1.

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