Delcambre is title town
The Delcambre Lady Panthers knocked on the championship door the past two seasons -- on Saturday night they kicked it wide open.
Sarah Derise doubled home Maci Terrebonne in the top of the 13th inning and Jaci Trahan pitched eight innings of relief, retiring 19 of the last 20 batters she faced, as the Delcambre Lady Panthers claimed a 5-4 win over Ouachita Christian to bring home the 2008 Class 1A softball title.
“Unbelievable,” said Delcambre head coach Mark Suire, “These kids have worked their tails off and they believed what I was trying to do.
“What more can you say about a group of kids.”
The Lady Panthers reached the semifinals in 2006 and ‘07, only to hit road blocks. That did not happen Saturday afternoon as the Lady Panthers earned a 4-2 win over No. 2 Cedar Creek to reach the first finals in school history. Derise played a big role in that win as she belted a home run. She came up big when it mattered most.
“I was tired and I wanted to get the game over with,” said Derise, who watched with her teammates as inning after inning went by. “I said, OK, let’s do something.”
That happened in the top of the 13th Regan Broussard singled to left field and Suire had Terrebonne pinch run for Broussard. Terrebonne then stole second and raced home on Derise’s double.
“It feels good,” said Terrebonne. “I knew there were two outs and I knew if I ran my hardest I would score.”
That one run was all the Lady Panthers needed as Trahan finished OCS in the bottom of the 13th.
“If she is not the best player in the state in 1A,” said Suire, “I don’t know who is. We have a special group of girls and she is one of the leaders.”
Suire and Trahan talked after the semifinal when, Trahan pitched seven inning in that game, to see what she had left.
“I thought I had about two or three innings,” said Trahan.
Suire started Linzy Landry, but Trahan entered the circle in the sixth inning. Her performance from that point was the stuff of legend.
“I think I could go some more,” said Trahan with a laugh after the game. “But we did it.”
The Lady Panthers took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Teirrany Peltier and Tailor Broussard each crossed home plate. Ouachita Christian tied the game in the bottom of the third when 11 doubled home 12. The Lady Panthers took the lead once again in the top of the fifth when Trahan popped up a short fly dropped by Ouachita’s third baseman, scoring Derise from third. Delcambre went up 4-2 moments later when Jenny Bouillion doubled off of the fence in left field that platted Trahan. Ouachita tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth when pitcher Gracie Thaxton, who had 20 strikeouts, doubled home Erin Tyler.
The game would remain that way until the to the 13th when Derise doubled to right and scored Terrebonne. As Delcambre players and fans celebrated, Suire could not help but think about what the title was about.
“This is about every class that has come through here in my seven years,” said Suire. “It has been a building process and every team has built on the other.
“This for the community everybody who has been a part of this program.” The Lady Pirate softball team did not make it look easy as they made their way through the state playoffs, but they found ways to win games all the way up to the semi-final round. It was there they ran into Parkview Baptist, which was able to put an end to their run with a 3-0 win.
KAPLAN -
Kaplan faced battles throughout the playoffs. The Lady Pirates took a 1-0 win over Bunkie in the second round in a game that went into extra innings. Kaplan faced Lutcher in their first game at Sulphur. It was the third meeting between the two teams this season. Kaplan dropped the first meeting 1-0 and won the second game 8-3. They looked to settle the score in the state playoffs in a game that had much higher stakes. It was Devan Greene who came through when the stakes were highest.
Greene took a two-strike pitch with two outs to left field and singled home Torri Choate and Tori Herpin to give the Lady Pirates a 5-4 win and a moment that will go down in Kaplan lore.
“She is just a special player,” said Kaplan head coach Shay Herpin of Friday’s hero.
In the semi-final round Kaplan was not able to pull off the late inning heroics to move forward. The first four innings of the game looked like a class pitchers dual, with Kaplan having the upper hand. Starting pitcher, Lanie Hollier, gave up one hit while striking out 11 batters through the first four innings. She looked to be untouchable. Unfourtunatly, so did the pitcher from Parkview Baptist. Kaplan was only able to get one base runner on base in the second inning when Devan Greene was hit by a pitch.
Parkview Baptist took advantage of one walk and one error in the fifth inning to score the first run of the game. Hollier faced a situation with runners on second and third with only one out. She went on to strike out the following two batters, but the ball got away from the Kaplan catcher on the third strike allowing a Parkview runner to score from third. Hollier went on to strike out the next batter to end the inning.
Parkview picked up two more runs in the top half of the sixth inning on two hits and one error to increase their lead to three runs. Kaplan looked like they may have had another historic come back working in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Tori Herpin picked up a one out single to attempt to get the Kaplan rally started. Devan Greene would later single up the middle of the infield with two outs to keep the inning alive. Kaplan was not able to capitalize again with runners on first and third base.
“I felt like we competed as well as we could,” said Herpin. “We just didn’t get the breaks and they did. We had opportunities we just capitalize.”
Alee Sistrunk led off the seventh inning with a single the center field, but that was as close as Kaplan would get. The next three batters were struck out to end Kaplan’s season. The losing pitcher, Lanie Hollier, pitched the entire seven innings allowing only three hits and one walk, while striking out 17 batters.