The picture above shows the Jackson Parish 12 All-Stars after finishing second in the District 8 Tournament played during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. On Wednesday evening the “dandy dozen” will have another picture made. It is already assured that at worst, they will pose with another second place trophy having finished as runner-up in the state tournament, which is a tremendous accomplishment in itself. That is not what they have their sights on though.

“We want to go home with the big trophy this time around,” said JP12U head coach Nick Tolar. “We are confident that we can do it to.”

And why not? JP12U will face the winner of Buckeye and Bossier who played on Tuesday night. One is a team they have already beaten in district play and the other being the team that dropped them into the losers bracket this past Sunday but it took seven innings to do so. 

“Our guys are confident that we can beat either one of these teams,” said Tolar. “That is not taking anything away from either one. They are both good teams, but we have already beaten Buckeye once and we played horrible against Bossier and still almost came back to win.”

Jackson Parish earned the right to play of the state title by beating DeQuincy in the tournament opener and then smashing Monroe twice, the second time being after losing 7-5 in extra innings to Bossier. That left the locals and both of the others all with a 3-1 record. Dixie Youth tie breaking rules then went into effect to determine how things would proceed from there.

Three slips of paper went into a hat that had Team one, Team two and Bye written. Tolar has made some nice moves as coach of the team but none better than his decision to pick the slip he did. 

“I can’t tell you how good I felt when I saw I had the one that said Bye,” laughed Tolar.

Game time for the state championship tilt is set for 5:30 pm at Osterland Park in Monroe. This is the closest setting that all the teams from Jackson Parish who qualified for state a state tournament had a chance to play in. A victory would propel Jackson Parish into the Dixie Youth 12U World Series at an even closer location. If the JP12U team advances they would take the Florida state champion on Friday, August 4th in Ruston.  

Bossier 7 Jackson Parish 5: Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Bossier was holding a 4-0 lead. It would have been worse were it not for three double plays turned by the locals, who rallied late to almost win it but ended up falling in extra frames.

Shortstop Tucker Goss fielded a grounder, flipped to second baseman Dawson Griffin who fired a rocket to first baseman Hayden Seymore for the first “twin killing” in the top of the second inning. The second was perhaps the most critical as Bossier had already scored four runs in the top of the third inning and had runners on first and second with one out. Ryan Mauthe fielded a grounder at third, stepped on the bag and fired to first to help JP12U escape without any further damage. The final “twice as nice” out play was orchestrated in Bossier’s next at bat by Bryce Tolar who caught a fly in center field and gunned the runner attempting to scramble back to first after leading off with a single.

Another clutch defensive play came in the top of the fifth when Bossier threatened to break open the game. A single, followed by a batter getting hit with a pitch put runner on first and second with nobody out. Bossier attempted to move the runners in scoring position by attempting a double steal but Asher Rhodes erased the lead runner with a strike to Mauthe at third. Two strikeouts later Jackson Parish came to bat in the bottom of the fifth full of momentum.

The frame was like an emotional yo-yo for the locals. First, Griffin and Leyton Younse got the locals hyped by hitting singles, only their second and third hit of the game at that point. Emotions crashed back down as the next two batters got out but skied again when Keiffer and Mason Thomas singled to plate two runs. A third run scored when Thomas stole second and Keiffer stole home on the throw down that was mishandled. Just like that it was a new game with JP12U now trailing but just a run. 

Bossier added a run in the top of the sixth and was looking for more after two singles, two errors, and a hit batter loaded the bases. Once again Jackson Parish rose to the occasion to get out of the inning as Mauthe, now on the mound in relief fired three straight strikes to end the threat and leave runners on every bag.  

Down to their last at bat in regulation play, it seemed like the inning was getting off to a bad start but when the Bossier catcher couldn’t handle a third strike, Jaxon Cheatwood scampered safely to first. After moving to second on a pickoff attempt, Cheatwood scored on a Tolar single to center field. Ryan Mauthe followed with a shot to left field but to Bossier’s credit their defensive alignment had the fielder playing up close and Tolar was nailed at second. A balk moved Mauthe to second where two pitches later he stole third. That set up a sacrifice fly by Seymore to tie the score at five each. 

Bossier then came up clutch with a two out single to score two runs and saddle JP12U with their first loss of the tourney after the locals were unable to mount a rally in their half of the inning. 

Jackson Parish got eight hits off Bossier pitching led by two from Keiffer that included a double, the only extra base hit of the game for the locals. Tolar, Goss, Mauthe and Seymore also did a commendable job on the mound as combined they only allowed two earned runs but were hurt by a tournament high five errors made. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Bossier	0	0	4	0	0	1	2	7	8	2
Jackson Parish	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	5	7	5

Jackson Parish 16 Monroe 6: The question was how would the boys respond after such a heart wrenching loss. The answer was very well. JP12U wasted no time in erasing the bad memory by plating four runs in the first and five more in the second to pave the way to the second straight stomping of the host team. 

To Monroe’s credit they scored six runs in the top of the fourth inning but for the second game in a row against their northeast Louisiana neighbor Jackson Parish plated seven runs in the bottom of the inning for the “walk-off” victory.

The decisive frame started with Asher Rhodes and Bryce Tolar slapping singles followed by a double by Ryan Mauthe. A Hayden Seymore groundout plated the third run of the frame upping JP’s lead to 12-6. That set off a string of six consecutive batters to reach base and end the game. Dawson Griffin got the string started by drawing a walk followed by consecutive singles by Kolt Keiffer and Tucker Goss. Mason Thomas followed with another walk setting up singles by Leyton Younse and Aiden Rhodes, the latter being the game winner. 

JP12U opened the contest with four of the first five batters (Tolar, Mauthe, Griffin, Keiffer) all hitting singles and Hayden Seymore reaching on a fielder choice to give the locals an early 4-0 advantage. 

Aiden Rhodes and Asher Rhodes proved to be double trouble for Monroe in the bottom of the second as both scored following their walk and single respectively before Tolar smashed a double to center to up the lead to 6-0. The lead increased by three more when Mauthe coaxed a walk and Griffin hit a clutch, two out single, stole second and scored on an error by the Monroe catcher. 

Jackson Parish pounded Monroe pitching for 14 hits led by Tolar who turned in a monster stat line of 3 hits in 3 at bats that included a double, 3 runs scored and 3 RBI. Griffin also came up big by going 2 for 2 with a walk, scoring 3 times, knocking in 3 more and stealing 3 of the 13 bases swiped by JP in the contest. 

 Mauthe, who got the other extra base hit for Jackson Parish, Keiffer, and Asher Rhodes all got two hits each and scored twice while Goss, Younse, and Aiden Rhodes, who added 2 RBI’s, got a hit each. Seymore had 2 RBI and scored a run and Thomas walked twice, got hit by a pitch and scored a run. Younse got the win after holding Monroe to just one hit and striking out three over the first three innings of play. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	R	H	E
Monroe	0	0	0	6	6	3	2
Jackson Parish	4	5	0	7	16	14	3

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