Ring a ding ding! They brought home the bling! 

Jackson Parish is recognized to be the home of youth league state champions. You can now add another local team to the long list as the 2023 JP10U girls softball All-Stars has won the Louisiana Little League 10U state title by blasting Sterlington 17-6 in the finals.  

The journey to being crowned state champion in Broussard, LA was ironically similar to the path taken in winning the District 5 tournament championship played back on June 16-18 at the Jackson Parish Recreation Sports Complex. 

In both, JP8U opened tournament play by crushing their first opponent. In both, they played Sterlington to a one run game in the next round and in both they blew Sterlington away to win the title. 

The difference was that Sterlington actually beat Jackson Parish 6-5 the first time the two met in state competition played July 8-10,, forcing the locals to play Moss Bluff again in the losers bracket just to get a chance to play in the finals.

No problem!

Just like the first time that JP10U and Moss Bluff played on Saturday, which was a 12-1 whipping by the locals, Jackson Parish crushed their south Louisiana foe again on Sunday, this time by a 10-0 margin. That set up another winner take all final game against their District 5 foe and like the 20-5 district championship winning victory, JP10U stomped Sterlington again to “win the ring”.

Jackson Parish 17 Sterlington 6: A consistent barrage of runs steadily beat Sterlington down. JP10U scored four in each of the first three innings to take a 12-5 advantage before adding five more over the final two frames for the final margin.

The victory was a total team effort as all twelve batters reached base at least once and 11 of the 12 scored runs. Jackson Parish pummeled Sterlington pitching to the tune of getting on base a whopping 35 times over the five innings via 12 hits, 13 walks, three hit batters and two errors. 

Early on it looked like Sterlington was going to give Jackson Parish another run for their money as two walks, two hit batters and an error led to two quick runs before the first out was recorded. Ryan Kate Wyatt, who ended up allowing only four hits and striking out an impressive 13 batters to earn the complete game victory, then settled down to strike out the next three. 

Jackson Parish wasted no time in responding. Hannah Aldy, who had a monster championship game performance with three hits, three runs scored and four RBI, got the rally started with a line shot to left before taking advantage of two passed balls to advance to third base. After Kynleigh Leach walked and stole second, Amelia Staggs tied the score with a single and took second when the throw in was bobbled. Wyatt then drew another walk and both advanced a base on a wild pitch. Staggs then scored on a passed ball and Ella Simonelli smacked a single to right to plate the fourth run of the frame. 

The second inning was much like the first with Sterlington putting on two baserunners after a walk and an error before Wyatt slammed the door shut by striking out the side again. Walks to Raleigh Guilliams, Elliot Savage, Kate Keiffer and Leach sandwiched a single by Scarlett Parks and a double by Aldy to lift JP10U to a commanding 8-2 lead. 

Sterlington scored three in the top of the third to narrow the margin to just three runs but once again Jackson Parish put up four in their half of the inning. Wyatt opened the frame with a single followed by three straight free passes which included a walk to Simonelli and both Charleigh Newton and Ryleigh McCormick getting hit by a pitch to load the bases. Watkins then hit a two-out, line shot to left for an inside the park grand slam to up the lead to 12-5 with just two innings to play.

Three straight walks to Aldy, Keiffer and Leach, her third free pass of the game followed by a single by Staggs and a double by Wyatt bumped the lead to 14-5 and basically put the ring on the fingers of the Jackson Parish team. For good measure JP10U added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth as McCormick walked Watkins got hit by a pitch and Savage walked to load the bases once again. A walk to Parks forced a run in setting up Aldy’s third hit of the game, this one being of the “walk-off” variety as the lead went over ten runs forcing an end to the game per the “mercy rule.” 

Jackson Parish 10 Moss Bluff 0: Amelia Staggs fired a complete game, four hit, shut out and Kate Keiffer and Kynleigh Leach got two hits and 2 RBI each to pace JP10U to the easy 3 1/2 inning victory. Jackson Parish wasted no time in establishing superiority. Hannah Aldy walked to open the bottom of the first and after three straight singles by Kate Keiffer, Kynleigh Leach and Amelia Staggs, who would later score when an error was made in the attempt to throw her out at third after a passed ball, Jackson Parish had plated four runs before the first out was made.  

The “dandy dozen” put the game away in the second. Ryleigh McCormick and Raleigh Guilliams singled with one out followed by walks to Elliot Savage, Scarlett Parks and Aldy forcing in two runs and loading the bases. Back-to-back doubles by Keiffer and Leach put the game out of reach at 10-0 with Staggs securing the victory by blanking Moss Bluff over the final two innings to end the contest per the “ten run” rule.