The Jackson Parish Dawgs 13U travel baseball team won three straight games this past Sunday including the championship game, clinching victory over BCO Brown County Outlaws to win the 2021 USSSA “Big League Dreams” tournament held in Mansfield, TX, located in the Dallas, TX metroplex.
Memorable Memorial Day Weekend! While most people were celebrating Memorial Day weekend by going to the lake, camping or grilling in the backyard with friends and family the Dawgs 13U team and their supporters were playing on and sitting in the stands of Wrigley Field. As in where the Chicago Cubs play? YEP! Well sort of… Actually their games were played on a replica of Wrigley Field, one of the several replica fields in the “Big League Dreams”| complex that includes Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox) and Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees).
Texas Two-Step! The Dawgs won their opener on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning against the Rose City Generals based in Beaumont, TX in blowouts of 12-4 and 13-1. In the opener the Dawgs scored six in the second inning and four more in the fourth as Hudson Pullig went 2/3 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI, Jace Shirley knocked in a pair and Kaleb Negrotto scored three runs. In the second game Pullig and Cole Tolar scored three times each, Colton Blundell and Kace West tallied twice while Tolar and West combined for a three hitter.
Saturday swoon and smash! The Dawgs scored 3,2 and 2 in the third thru fifth innings to take a 7-4 lead and looked primed to move past the Brown County Outlaws out of Brownwood, TX (west-central Texas but in the bottom of the fifth and what would turn out to be the final inning the Outlaws stole the game by getting six straight on base through four hits and error and a walk to rally for an 8-7 victory. The loss offset 2/2 performance by Ty Henderson and the longest Dawg homerun of the year by Cole Tolar whose shot not only cleared the left field wall but went completely out of the stadium, an estimated 385 feet.
Rockin’ past Rockwell! In perhaps the most impressive effort of the tourney the Dawgs scored 7 in the first three innings in their second game on Sunday to most past the Rockwell Rebels 7-2 and earn a spot in the title game. To give the win a perspective, there are subdivisions in Rockwell, TX (population 44,000) that have more people in it than all of Jackson Parish. but thanks to the balanced attack that saw eight Dawgs get hits the game was really no contest. Maddox Duck and Chad Tolar gave the Dawgs a 2-0 lead after one setting up the five run fourth.
Firepower! Blundell and Tolar led off with singles then the Dawgs hit three straight extra base hits beginning with a triple by Pulling. Kace West and Dawson LaCombe then followed with back to back double, Negortto slapped a single and Shirley reached on an error to give the locals a commanding 7- 0 lead that they would make stand up.
Rematch! That set up a winner take all rematch with Brown County and the Dawgs wasted no time in tallying with three in the first. BCO got closer at 4-2 after two but three in the third and fifth and a single spot in the fourth left no doubt. Blundell led the way with three hits while Duck and Pullig got two apiece. Negrotto knocked in a pair and both Pullig and Blundell scored twice. Lacombe went the distance to earn the win.
Over the five games, Cole Tolar hit .583 with Colton Blundell and Hudson Pullig hit 4.29 each. Ty Henderson also checked in over the Williams mark with a .417 average and Maddox Duck checked in with a .385 mark. Pullig led with 7 RBI and 9 runs scored with Tolar one behind. Pullig led with 6 stolen bases, just one ahead of Trey Treslair.
Tournament statistics for Dawgs 13U
| NAME | BA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | RS | SB |
| Cole Tolar | .583 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| Colton Blundell | .429 | 14 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 |
| Hudson Pullig | .429 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| Ty Henderson | .417 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Maddox Duck | .385 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Jace Shirley | .333 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Levi Joyner | .286 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Dawson LaCombe | .222 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Kaleb Negrotto | .200 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Kace West | .182 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Trey Trosclair | .125 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
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