Jackson Parish beat DeQuincy 6-3 and homestanding Monroe 10-0 to storm their way into the finals of the winners bracket of the Dixie Youth State 12U  baseball tournament being played at Osterland Park in Monroe.

Timely hitting, tremendous base running and spectacular pitching was the recipe as the locals became only one of two teams in the eight-team tourney to be undefeated heading into Sundays, 7:30 pm, matchup where the winner will punch their ticket to the finals. 

Over the two contests, JP12U posted a .308 team batting average and swiped 17 bases, equating to an incredible 8.5 stolen bases per game. Just as impressive was the pitching performance by four hurlers that allowed only four hits in 43 batters faced and striking out 15 while posting a minuscule 0.70 earned run average. 

Jackson Parish 6 DeQuincy 3: Three runs in each of the first two innings was all that was needed as Tucker Goss, Ryan Mauthe, Leyton Younse and Aiden Rhodes held their south Louisiana opponent to just three hits.

The locals wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard as Bryce Tolar and Mauthe deployed a keen eye to coax walks setting up an clutch, two-out single by Younse. Goss followed with a grounder to third that was too hot to handle allowing Younse to come all the way around for the quick 3-0 advantage. 

The second inning started much like the first with Mason Thomas and Aiden Rhodes getting free passes to open the frame. A Tolar single brought both home followed by Mauthe’s double that posted the final runs scored by JP12U. 

In reality they only needed one as the four “horsemen” on the mound for Jackson Parish was virtually untouchable until the bottom of the fifth inning allowing only two hits, one which was immediately erased by a double play. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Jackson Parish	3	3	0	0	0	0	6	4	2
DeQuincy	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	3	3

Jackson Parish 10 Monroe 0: Tucker Goss and Leyton Younse combined to strike out seven and allow only a second inning single in the shutout over the tourney host. Five hits and seven steals led to JP12U posting seven runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to slam the door on the contest by virtue of the the “ten run” rule. 

The decisive inning started with a single by Kolt Keiffer and walks to Mason Thomas and Aiden Rhodes to load the bases. Jaxon Cheatwood then blasted a double to center field to score two followed by Bryce Tolar hitting a single to left to add two more to the total and give JP12U a commanding 7-0 lead.  A Ryan Mauthe single and Hayden Seymore’s sacrifice fly to left field plated two more runs setting up a base hit by Dawson Griffin who scored the game ending run. 

The only threat Monroe made in the contest came in the second when two walks and a hit loaded the bases but Goss struck recorded one of his five strikeouts in 2.2 inning pitched to end the threat. 

Back-to-back doubles by Ryan Mauthe and Seymore put JP12U up 1-0 in the first inning. The lead increased to 3-0 in the bottom of the third when Tolar led off with a walk and scored on Mauthe’s second “two bagger” of the game. After a steal of third, one of four bases Mauthe swiped in the contest that added to the astounding 13 thefts recorded by JP12U, Griffin hit a sac fly to drive him home.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	R	H	E
Monroe	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Jackson Parish	1	0	2	7	10	8	0

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