Day 5 of the 11-12 Dixie Youth Boys State Tournament
Tuesday, July 27, 2022
Lasalle Park
Metairie, LA
Jefferson Parish
Written By: Chip Ravaglia, JPRD Roving Reporter
The Vikings of Girard Captured the 2022 DYB State Tournament
They Sewed It Up with a Hard Fought Win Over
The Franklin All Stars 6-3
The Vikings’ Recipe for Winning
Was Timely Hits, Strong Pitching & Solid Defense Play
Now there is one. After beginning the tournament with 8 teams it came down to Girard and Franklin in the finals with the Vikes prevailing in a close game early. Timely hitting, strong pitching and solid defense left a “Bitter Taste” for their opponents from the South Louisiana Sugar Cane Capital.
Franklin began the game with the first three hitters getting on base. A base on balls and two consecutive hits plated 1 run for Franklin. A big break came for Girard when Frankin’s Trey Edomd hit a ball that struck the top of the left field fence and bounced back into in play. Instead of 3-0 lead it stayed at 1. Delatte then settled in and proceeded to fan the next three Franklin batters. Five strike outs over the first two innings.
In Girard’s half of the first Delatte lead of with a walk. Franklin’s coaching staff strategically decided to intentionally walk Guedry. With runners at 1st and 2nd, Guitterrez then lofted a sacrifice fly to right to advance Delette. The next two Vikings popped up to first and the third out was recorded by a Viking hitting into a 6-3 groundout leaving Delatte stranded at third.
Things began to unravel for Franklin in the second as Girard recorded four runs. Stuprich and Pourciau got things started by walking with 1 out. From here, timely hits were delivered by Nugent and Rehage. Next a well executed drag bunt for a hit by Pitts with two outs plated Nugent. The inning had the Vikes scoring four runs that would hold up for the win.
Franklin had an opportunity in the top of third with a runner on second and two outs. Girard’s catcher, Austin Guedry, caught the runner napping as he threw a perfect throw to second baseman, Cole Schmidt, who applied the sweeping tag for the third out.
The Girard’s half of the third had them add on two more runs. Cooper Couret delivered a two RBI double to center that scored Guedry and Guitterrez. In the fourth, Girard loaded the bases on a single by Schmidt and the next two hitters were issued base on balls. Girard’s next hitter struck out on an off speed pitch to end Girard’s threat to break open the game.
In the bottom of the fifth Franklin’s “Hot Corner Guardian,” Traye Richardson, assisted on all three outs in the inning. His back handed pick saved a double down the line. He also fielded two hard ground balls and threw two perfect strikes to first to nab both runners by a step.
Coach Delatte decided to bring Brennan Chaix in to pitch in the sixth inning with one out. He shut the door on Franklin and preserved the 6-3 win. Starting pitcher Delatte was credited for the win. He logged in 5 1/3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits, 3 BB along with 11 Strikeouts!
Not to be overlooked was the errorless play of the infield from third to first: Christian Gadola, Bryce Stuprich, Cole Schmidt and Cameron Guitterrez along with Austin Guidry behind the plate.
The defense of the outfielders limited balls hit in the gaps to singles. Their hustle reduced extra base hits and limited scoring opportunities for Franklin. The “Angels in the Outfield” were: Blake Pitts, Jayden Rehage, Cole Schmidt, Cooper Couret and Brennan Chaix.
Coming up big at the plate were Couret with 1 hit & 2rbi’s, along with Nugent, Rehage and Pitts each delivering an RBI and a base hit in helping their team capture the Dixie Youth Boys State Title for 2022.
The coaches deserve congratulations and lots of credit for the time and effort they put into coaching these young men. The coaches are:
Derek Delatte, Jonathan Jones, David Chaix and Kirk Couret.
The team will head to North Caroline next week for the Dixie Youth Word Series! We wish them great success!
A Final Thought. This team from Girard demonstrated throughout the tournament the meaning of the word “ TEAM.”
Together Everyone Achieves More!