SLIDELL -- The Ville Platte Girl’s Recreational Association 8U All-Stars are at it again.
The young ladies with the tough as nails, never say die attitude took home another championship title last weekend, as they battled their way to the USSSA Recreational All-Stars State Tournament title.
This title makes the second state title won by Ville Platte along with the USSSA Class C state championship won two weekends ago in Broussard.
The All-Stars travel to Gulf Shores, Alabama to take part in the USSSA World Series which begins tomorrow. The Gazette will have the results of that tournament in next Sunday’s edition.
“We are so lucky to have a great group of girls and coaches,” stated head coach Sunny Lahaye. “I was so proud of the effort our girls gave out there. Even though we lost our second pool play game, I think it was a good eye-opener. We were getting a little too relaxed and it woke them up. But they pulled it together and we came out on top.”
“One of the things we have worked on all year is mental toughness,” Lahaye continued. “Every time that we have a bad play or a bad game, we say next play. That means we can’t change what just happened, but we can stop one bad play before it becomes two bad plays. That mental toughness has grown all season long and I think it is the main reason we have been so successful this year.”
Ville Platte started off the tournament on the right foot, winning their first pool game by a 13-1 margin over St. Bernard. The All-Stars wasted little time in putting away St. Bernard, scoring six runs in the first two innings before finishing the game off with a single run in the third inning.
The only hiccup the entire tournament came in the second pool game against Carrollton Blue. Ville Platte fell behind 8-1 after two innings of play and were not able to recover.
Carrollton scored another run in the third inning to go up 9-1. The All-Stars tried to rally in the fourth inning, scoring five runs, but it was too little too late.
Ville Platte bounced back with a vengeance in their first bracket game, as they blasted past the American Girls 14-4. The All-Stars pounded out four runs or more in each of their three at bats in the game.
Game two of bracket play turned out to be a close one for Ville Platte. In the first six inning contest for the All-Stars, Ville Platte had to hold off the Knockouts for a 9-6 win.
The All-Stars found a familiar opponent awaiting them in the third bracket game of the tournament, as they faced off against Carrollton once again. Despite being down 2-0 after one inning, Ville Platte went on to score 10 runs over the next four innings to put the victory away.
That game put the All-Stars in the finals and one win away from the championship. In the title game, Ville Platte had to go to battle with Carrollton one more time.
However, this game would be a whole lot different than the first two, as the All-Stars left no doubt as to who the real championship team was, taking out Carrollton in a walk-away 15-5 route.
In that game, Ville Platte came out on fire at the plate, picking up five big runs in the first inning. The All-Stars followed that up with four more runs in the second inning. A six run third inning basically sealed the run-rule win.
Carrollton’s only runs came in the first, third and fourth innings.
“This is a huge accomplishment for us, no doubt,” said Lahaye. “But, we have to put that behind us and re-focus ourselves for the next test. We are looking forward to getting back on the field.”