By virtue of winning their first two games at the district 5 softball tournament played at the Jackson Parish Recreation Department Sports Complex this past Friday and Saturday, the Jackson Parish 10U Girl All-Stars have qualified for the Little League state tournament. The locals played for the district title on Sunday.

Under the guidance of head coach Justin Wyatt and assistants Corey Aldy and Tamala Keiffer the “dandy darlings” opened play on Friday by blasting Bossier 22-1 followed by a come from behind 8-7 victory over Sterlington on Saturday.

Jackson Parish 22 Bossier 1: Fueled by a Sky Watkins inside the park grand slam JP10U exploded for 12 runs in the second inning that saw 16 batters come to the plate on their way to the easy three inning victory. Hannah Aldy hit a double and a single in the frame and Kate Keiffer, Kynleigh Leach, Amelia Staggs and Charleigh Newton all hit singles to contribute to the impressive offensive outburst.

Elliot Savage and Scarlett Parks got the big inning started by reaching on errors and later both reached base again via a single and getting hit by a pitch respectively. Ryan Kate Wyatt and Ella Simonelli coaxed walks to play a role in the scoring as did Raleigh Guilliams who got plunked for the second straight time.

The locals opened the contest by scoring four runs in the top of the first on the strength of Aldy and Simonelli slapping singles, Leach and Newton drawing walks, Wyatt and Guilliams getting hit by a pitch and Staggs reaching on an error.
Six runs were added in the top of the third when Leach, Wyatt, Newton, Watkins and Ryleigh McCormick were issued free passes, Simonelli singled and both Staggs and Guilliams reached on errors and came all the way around to score.

Pitching and defense also played a key factor in the contest. Wyatt struck out the side in the first inning and Staggs K’d five in two innings of work as the pair faced only two batters over the minimum and combined on a no-hitter while Bossier gave up 13 free passes and committed 10 errors in the field.

Jackson Parish 8 Sterlington 7: It was a much different story in the finals of the winners bracket on Saturday as Sterlington opened with six runs in the top of the first inning only to see Jackson Parish come storming back with three in their half of the frame and five more in the bottom of the third.

Nursing the one run lead, Ryan Kate Wyatt, who grabbed the victory with a complete game, 10 strikeout performance, slammed the door on the potent Sterlington offense by not allowing a hit over the final three frames, including K’ing the last five batters she faced.

After spotting Sterlington six runs on the strength of two of the three hits the visitors got in the game, including a two-run triple, three free passes and two errors, Jackson Parish responded by cutting the deficit in half. Hannah Aldy got the inning started by coaxing a walk and went to second on a Kate Keiffer single. Kynleigh Leach smashed a double to center field to plate the first run followed by Wyatt hitting a single to score two more.

Leach, Amelia Staggs and Wyatt hit three straight singles followed by a double from Ella Simonelli and another single by Charleigh Newton to pull JP10U to within one at 7-6 in the bottom of the third. Raleigh Guilliams followed by hitting a ground ball to the right side of the infield and was forced out at first for the second out of the inning, but the at-bat was productive as Simonelli scored to tie the game and Newton went to third. The eventual winning run came across two pitches later when Newton was able to take home on a pitch that got away.