Four local All-Star teams competed in state tournament play this weekend with three teams still vying for a state title as of Saturday night and one team heading home after an early exit. The JP11U boys and JP10U girls are sitting in the best position having gone undefeated through the weekend with games still to be played on Sunday against teams that were still to be determined. JP13U is scheduled to play Jefferson Parish West at 11:30 am on Sunday needing a victory to stay alive after dropping their first game and the JP8U girls headed back to Jackson Parish after being eliminated after two games. 

Dixie Junior 13U Baseball State Tournament
Pineville, LA

(Saturday) Jefferson Parish East 15 Jackson Parish 0: Bad luck surfaced early for Jackson Parish leading to a case of what could go wrong did go wrong in the opening contest of the three team state tournament being played in Pineville. In summary, too many batters from JPE got free passes and too many JP13U runners got called out on the base paths in the three innings of play before the game was called due to the “mercy rule.”

The game started on a promising note for the locals as Zach Smudricks drew a one out walk and Kyptin Caskey followed with a single. Then the first of several bad breaks came about as Gunner Fontenot hit a hard line shot up the middle that was nabbed by the JPE pitcher who then relayed to second base for an inning ending double play.  In the bottom half, JPE loaded the bases on a single and two walks but a pop out to shortstop Cail King left JP13U needing just an out to escape unharmed. Instead the plate moved. Five straight walks followed by a single led to 7 runs being scored. Two more walks by the second JP13U pitcher led to another run crossing the plate, leaving JP13U behind 8-0 at the end of the first inning. 

More bad luck followed in the top half of the second. King opened with a single followed by Will Dupree hitting a groundball that the shortstop mishandled but recovered in time to gun down King, who was trying to advance to third. Brody Halbrook reached on a catcher interference call but the two runners were left stranded. The bottom of the second was much like the first as JPE loaded the bases with two outs and had two runs walked in to up the lead to 10-0. 

Rodney Williams opened the third by drawing a walk but was forced at second on a Caskey grounder. Fontenot followed with a single but once again two runners were left on base leading to the final JPE at bat where after the lead off batter got a hit and a single, two walks scored a run and loaded the bases against the third JP13U pitcher. A triple cleared the bases and then one out later a hit scored the game ending run. 

JP13U made good contact against Jefferson Parish pitching but it always seemed to be right at someone. Caskey led the locals with two hits followed by Fontenot, King and Dupree getting one each. Williams and Smudricks also drew walks. 

TEAM	1	2	3	R	H	E
Jackson Parish	0	0	0	0	5	0
Jefferson Parish East	8	2	5	15	5	1

Dixie Youth 11U Baseball State Tournament
Bossier City, LA

Jackson Parish won both their Pool Play games this weekend taking down Minden on Friday and Franklinton on Saturday. The two victories positioned the locals to receive a first round bye in the single elimination portion of the tournament as Pool B champion, needing only to win their 9:00am contest on Sunday to qualify for the Dixie Youth World Series. 

(Friday) Jackson Parish 10 Minden 4: Lucas Bandy and Colten Otwell smashed doubles and Noah Spillman, Waylon Stroud, Ryan Sandifer and Jake Emmons all reached base twice as JP11U touched up Minden pitching for 17 base runners. Cason Rogers, Jake Moak, Raylon Bradford, Conner Thompson, Andrew Brown and Henry Underwood all reached once as every batter got on base and nine of the twelve scored runs. 

Jackson Parish came out swinging a hot stick. Spillman and Rogers led off with walks and Otwell hit a double to give JP11U an early 2-0 lead with no one out. Back-to-back singles by Bradford and Stroud followed by the second double of the inning off the bat of Bandy upped the lead to 5-0 before the inning was over. Sandifer opened the second inning with a single followed by Brown coaxing a walk. Singles by Emmons and Underwood plated two more runs. Meanwhile Spillman was keeping Minden at bay allowing only one hit and one run. Walks to Otwell and Moak to start the third inning led to both scoring after Otwell stole home and Moak scored on a Bradford sacrifice fly. Minden narrowed the margin to 9-4 in the bottom of the third before Moak came in to slam the door shut in relief leading Thompson hitting a single in the fourth and coming home on Sandifers second hit of the contest. 

Alert baserunning also played a big part in the victory as Jackson Parish took 17 bases via steals, passed balls or wild pitches. Otwell led the way with five followed by three from Spillman and two each by Stroud, Moak and Sandifer. Emmons, Brown and Underwood also took an extra base.  

TEAM	1	2	3	4	R	H	E
JP11U	5	2	2	1	10	10	1
Minden	0	1	3	0	4	6	0

(Saturday) Jackson Parish 7 Franklinton 4: With the clock running out in the timed contest, JP11U scored five runs in the bottom of the third inning to overcome a 4-2 deficit and finish Pool A play undefeated. Henry Underwood and Noah Spillman opened the deciding at bat with walks followed by a Cason Rogers single that pulled JP11U to within one run. Colton Otwell then drew a walk setting up a Jake Moak smash to centerfield that ended up plating the two runners and left him on third with a clutch triple to give Jackson Parish the lead. Raylon Bradford coaxed the fourth walk of the inning and after Moak scored on a wild pitch and Bradford stole third and then scored the final run of the contest. 

Franklinton put the locals in a hole by scoring four runs in the top of the first before Otwell and Conner Thompson came on in relief to hold the south Louisiana foe scoreless the rest of the way. JP11U chipped away at the lead when Rogers singled, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch in the first and Waylon Stroud walked, went to second when Lucas Bandy walked and scored on a Ryan Sandifer single. 

TEAM	1	2	3	R	H	E
Franklinton	4	0	0	4	3	0
Jackson Parish	1	1	5	7	4	0

Little League 10U Softball State Tournament
Broussard, LA

(Saturday) Jackson Parish 12 Moss Bluff 1: Five timely hits, including a triple by Kate Keiffer, ten free passes and seven opportunistic steals led to the methodical whipping of Moss Bluff that put JP10U one win away from reaching the finals. Two runs in the second and fifth innings sandwiched four runs each in the third and fourth frame setting up a match that was to be played Saturday evening against the winner of Sterlington and Vidalia. 

Ryan Kate Wyatt singled, Charleigh Newton walked and Skly Watkins got hit by a pitch to load the bases in the second inning leading to the first two runs. Raleigh Guilliams drove in the first by drawing a two out walk followed by Newton scoring on a passed ball. Walks to Scarlett Parks and Keiffer along with a single by Amelia Staggs and both Kynleigh Leach and Wyatt reaching on errors upped the lead to 6-0 after two. 

JP10U took a commanding 10-0 lead in the third. Guilliams got things started with a single followed by Elliott Savage and Parks reaching base via a walk and getting hit by a pitch to load the bases. An error on a ground ball hit by Hannah Aldy and a walk to Keiffer scored two followed by another error on a fly ball hit by Staggs and Aldy taking home on a passed ball accounting for the next two. 

Moss Bluff finally was able to score their only run off in the bottom of the fourth off of Wyatt, who struck out 8 and gave up only 3 hits in the complete game five inning victory. JP10U scored their final two runs when Watkins reached on the sixth Moss Bluff error of the contest, stole second and scored on consecutive wild pitches before Ryleigh McCormick walked and scored on a Guilliams single. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	R	H	E
Jackson Parish	0	2	4	4	2	12	5	2
Moss Bluff	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	6

Little League “Coach Pitch” 8U State Tournament
Broussard, LA

Jackson Parish scored 19 runs and pounded out 48 hits but late rallies by SPAR Little League in the first game and Sterlington in the second eliminated the girls after two games.

SPAR 13 JP8U 5: Eight runs in the top of the fourth inning helped SPAR overcame a 4-3 lead by Jackson Parish sending the locals into the losers bracket despite pounding out 17 hits. Cadie Conn smashed a homerun and a double, Presley Carpenter hit a triple and a two bagger and Caylee Mauthe ripped a double for the five extra base hits tallied. Kylee Ann Allen, Ella Siddon, Savannah Porter all got two hits, while Miriam Shuler, Charley Linton, Macie Halbrook and Abigail Sullivan chipped in with a hit each. 

Sterlington 17 JP8U 14: In the battle of District 5 finalists, Sterlington scored 11 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to rally from a 9-6 deficit and send JP8U home with the heartbreaking loss. The contest see-sawed back and forth all game. Sterlington went up by two in the first only to see JP8U tying in the second and then taking a two run lead in the top of the third. Sterlington rallied to tie and then went up by two again in the bottom of the fourth. JP8U rallied to score 7 in the top of the fifth setting the stage for the 11 runs explosion that basically iced the game. Jackson Parish scored three in the top of the sixth but the rally fell short. There was a total of 58 hits combined in the contest with JP8U outhitting Sterlington 31 to 27. 

Presley Carpenter, who had two doubles and Charley Linton led the way with four hits each followed by Abigail Sullivan, Kylee-Ann Allen, Cadie Conn, Miriam Shuler,  and Macie Halbrook all getting three hits each.  Caylee Mauthe and Rylee Puffer chipped in with two hits and Ella Siddon got one for the locals. Carpenter also led the team in runs scored with three. Allen, Conn, Shuler, Mauthe and Holbrook scored two each and Linton added one. Shuler had 4 RBI and Siddon and Mauthe both had two. Carpenter, Holbrook, Linton and Puffer knocked in one each. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Jackson Parish	0	2	2	0	7	3	14	31	0
Sterlington	2	0	2	2	11	1	17	27	0

---