Have you ever heard the one about the 8th grader hitting two home runs in a game to give her 10 home runs for the season? Or how about the one of the 8th grader winning her 10th game on the mound? They are both true stories and they are both about the same girl from Quitman High School.
District 1-2A champion, D’Arbonne Woods Charter (DWC) knows the truth of the stories all too well. Guarantee you they wish they didn’t, but they won’t soon be forgetting about the young phenom, Maggie Guyotte, who went 3/3, slammed a pair of home runs, added a double, scored twice and drove in five to help lift Quitman to a 14-4, five inning victory. Oh, by the way, Guyotte also pitched six hit ball over five innings to run her record on the mound to 10-2 on the year.
The victory came in the first game of the prestigious, Buckeye Tournament that QHS head coach Justin Dobson enlisted the Lady Wolverines in to help prepare for the upcoming rigors of the Class B state softball tournament. Held on the final weekend of the regular season the tourney featured 29 teams, including the top ranked team in Class 5A, Division III and Division V as well as the 2nd ranked team in Class 4A, Tioga, which Quitman played in their second game.
You might have also heard about the other underclass(women) that the Lady Wolverines have as well such as Madison Chaplin, whose triple was one of three hits, drove in three and scored a pair. There is Cali Deal (4 RS, RBI, SB) and Madeline Vail ( 3B, 2 RS, 2 RBI, SB), who chipped in with a pair of hits and you can’t forget Marley Bell and her two hits and two RBI or Averie Williams who knocked in a pair. As a group, which doesn’t have a senior on the roster and is one of the, if not the, youngest lineup in the state the Lady Wolverines cracked out 13 hits, almost half (6) for extra bases.
The result was Quitman’s 20th win of the year against only 6 losses. The victory came in the first game of the prestigious, Buckeye Tournament that QHS head coach Justin Dobson enlisted the Lady Wolverines in to help prepare for the upcoming rigors of the Class B state softball tournament. Held on the final weekend of the regular season the tourney featured 29 teams, including the top ranked team in Class 5A, Division III and Division V as well as the 2nd ranked team in Class 4A, Tioga, which Quitman played in their second game.
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R | H | E |
| Quitman | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 4 |
| D’Arbonne Woods | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
WP – Guyotte (10-2)
LP – n/a
2B – Deal, Guyotte
3B – Vail, Chaplin
HR – Guyotte 2
RBI – Guyotte 5, Chaplin 3, Vail 2, Williams 2, Brymer, Deal
RS – Deal 4, Guyotte 2, Chaplin 2, Vail 2, Bell 2
SB – Hall, Vail, Chaplin, Deal
Lady Wolverines fall late to Tioga
Even though Quitman lost the contest to Tioga 7-4 in the second game of the Buckeye Tournament, it was mission accomplished in the mind of head coach Justin Dobson. Sure, every loss hurts, especially when have played the 2nd ranked team in Class 4A to a standstill for five innings but the tough game against a top-notch opponent was just what Dobson was hoping for heading into the Class B playoffs.
Maddie Kaye Brymer and Madison Chaplin put Quitman on top with back-to-back singles to open the game but Tioga responded with a two run homerun in the bottom half of the first. Another Lady Indian homer upped the lead to 3-1 after three but Quitman showed their moxie when Skylar Hall executed a perfectly placed bunt single followed by Karley Huckaby going deep to tie the game at three apiece after four full innings.
The difference in the game came when Tioga surged ahead by three in the top of the fifth after two hits, three walks and an untimely error. Quitman scored in the top of the seventh for the final margin when Maggie Guyotte continued her torrid tournament pace by smacking her third home run in two games.
Cali Deal struck out 12, the 8th time this season she has fanned more than 10 batters in a contest. It was an uncharacteristic and season high, six walks though that led the way to a season most, five earned runs allowed as she fell to 10-4 on the year and Quitman, who out hit Tioga 9-6, dropped to 20-7 with two games left on the regular season schedule. Tioga, the district 3-4A champion, improved to 18-7 with the victory.
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Quitman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 2 |
| Tioga | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | x | 7 | 6 | 2 |
WP – Williams
LP – Deal (10-4)
HR – Huckaby, Guyotte
RBI – Huckaby 2, Guyotte, Chaplin
RS – Guyotte, Brymer, Hall, Huckaby
SB – Hall
Five run lead turns into ten inning loss for Quitman
The early smiles of satisfaction turned to late frowns of frustration. The Wolverines scored three in the first and two more in the second to take a commanding lead in the district 2B rematch against Choudrant, who proved the heart of a champion dies hard by rallying for a 7-5, ten inning victory. Both teams have now won on their opponent’s home turf. Both are also now 1-1 in district play with Quitman dropping to 8-11 overall and Choudrant moving to 16-7 on the season.
Early on it looked like it would be two Jackson Parish teams that would be 2-0 in 2B play. Quitman bolted out of the box to take a 5-0 lead thanks to three of Choudrant’s six miscues in the game and a three bagger from Ty Simonelli, who led the Wolverine’s offensive attack with three hits. For five innings, Blake Carter was giving the Aggies anguish as well allowing just a single run.
Then in the sixth, Choudrant came alive. A hit, a walk and an error resulted in Logan Ponder taking over on the mound for Quitman. After a hit batter and another hit Choudrant narrowed the lead to 5-3. Choudrant came all the way back in the seventh with a double, another hit batter and another walk. Ian Tilley was then summoned to the mound and got out of the inning without giving up a hit but Choudrant still managed to score the tying run on a sacrifice fly.
Quitman put a runner on base in both the bottom of the eighth and ninth inning but failed to score setting up the fateful top of the tenth when Choudrant had runners on first and second with two outs before hitting a single to score a run and then adding another on a passed ball.
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Choudrant | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 6 |
| Quitman | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
WP – Callendar
LP – Tilley
3B – Simonelli
RBI – Simonelli
RS – Simonelli 2, Morgan, Ponder, West
SB – Ponder
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