Headed to Mississippi

The Ville Platte Dixie Youth Major All-Stars are headed back to the World Series.
The Ville Platte 12’s crushed Cleary Playground, based out of New Orleans, in the Dixie Youth State Championship Series held last weekend in Alexandria. Ville Platte blasted a total of ten home runs, including nine in one game, as the team won the two contests by a combined score of 30-4.
“I never seen a hitting performance like I saw this past weekend,” Ville Platte coach Delaney Fontenot said. “We gave up only four runs in two games. The defense and pitching were outstanding but the hitting was amazing to watch.”
Ville Platte entered the state championship series coming off a South Regional win in which the team went undefeated and outscored their opponents 45-10. Those offensive fireworks continued in Alexandria as Ville Platte rolled to a 10-0 victory on Friday night.
After going three-up and three-down in the first inning, Ville Platte got on the board in the second inning with a solo home run by Remington Guillory. Ville Platte would add four runs over the next two innings before lighting up the scoreboard with five runs in the fifth.
After a two-run single by Dylan Blevins, the game was called due to mercy rule after Guillory drove in Blevins with a single of his own.
“Our kids have really figured it out at the plate,” Fontenot said. “We laid off the breaking ball and we hit the fastball, and when we did we hit it hard.”
Then on Saturday, Ville Platte was even more dominant inside the batter’s box as the team rolled to a 20-4 victory, hitting a state record nine home runs, in the series-clinching win.
Hayden Fontenot led things off with a home run in the first, followed by one by Isaac Leger. After a pop up for an out, Guillory hit a home run and was followed by a homer by Aiden Brignac and Landry Lafleur.
Fontenot, Remington and Brignac all would hit another home run each in that game as Ville Platte rolled to an easy victory.
“I was certainly confident in this group,” Fontenot said. “They have worked hard and played the game the right way. I knew they were in a position to punch through and win that state championship but I didn’t expect it to go down the way it did.”
Fontenot added, “People are going to downplay that other team and say they weren’t that good. They just ran into us.”
Despite jumping out to big leads, Fontenot’s squad never felt comfortable and continued trying to put more runs on the scoreboard. That mentality stems from falling short of winning the state championship two years ago.
“It was super important to this group of kids,” Fontenot said. “We were one strike away from the World Series and it slipped away. Those kids remember that.”
Fontenot gives a lot of the credit to the team’s success this year to the player’s parents and the players.
“I want to thank everyone for their support,” Fontenot said. “This group of parents have worked so hard and have been so dedicated. Without them none of this would be possible. It is really a special thing.”
Ville Platte now heads to Laurel, Mississippi for the World Series. The opening ceremony will be held on Friday, August 5th and Ville Platte takes on the host team at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 6th.
As the team prepares for the World Series, parents and coaches are holding fundraising events for the team. There will be a bake sale held this Sunday after 8:30 mass at Our Lady Queen of All Saints and then again following 10:00 mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church. The team is also having a poboy fund raiser in which poboys and bag of chips for $7 will be delivered on Monday, August 1. The team will also be having a radiothon with KVPI from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, August. 2.
While the fundraising is going on, the team will be working on fine tuning things this week and early next, and will be holding the practices at the old Dixie Youth fields on Lincoln Road. The goal for the youngsters is to return home with the World Series title, a year after finishing as runner-up at the World Series held in Lexington, South Carolina.
“I told the kids that this is not a house of cards,” Fontenot said. “This is something that we built from day one three years ago. It will take something strong to break that down.”