Evangeline PONY all-stars win regional tournament

BY: TRACEY JAGNEAUX
Sports Editor

When it comes to 13U PONY baseball, Evangeline Parish has the better of two worlds. The Evangline PONY all-stars have combined players from Mamou and players from Ville Platte to take part in the post-season.
This combination has produced a regional title and now moves the team on to the PONY Sectional Tournament in Houston, Texas. The tournament begins on July 23. The Evangeline all-stars will open the tournament against San Juan, Texas. Game time is set for 6 p.m.
So, how does one go about creating a team from two different towns? According to assistant coach Brent Duplechin, you just model it after a team that existed at one time.
“(Head Coach) Dale Serie and I came up with an idea to put kids from Mamou and Ville Platte together after both of us had played for the (now defunct) American Legion team the Evangeline 76’ers,” said Duplechin.
“We participated in American Legion when Coach Joe Ortwein was in charge of the team and it was a great time in our lives. So we said let’s combine the two regular season PONY teams and play all-stars together. In fact that is where we came up with the name for the team.”
Both Mamou and Ville Platte had 13U PONY baseball teams in the regular season. But, according to PONY rules, two separate teams can combine to play all-stars as long as they are in the same area or, in this case, parish.
“We got together and picked players from both squads that we thought would fill the needs to make a very good team,” stated Duplecin.
When asked how that combination has worked so far, Duplechin pointed to the fact that the players have known each other for a while.
“These guys have played against each other in Dixie Youth since pitching machine,” commented Duplechin. “So, it has been a good transition for them. You know that after 12 years old, there is really no league for the kids to play in, so these guys that play on this team are hard core. They really like the game and want to play.”
As far as the players are concerned, the fact that the team is a mix of two towns is not really an issue.
“We all come from the same area, so it really isn’t a problem,” said Christian Duplechin, one of the players from Ville Platte. “I think we have really come together as a team. We have been working hard and we are ready for the sectional tournament. We are very deep in our pitching staff and have some players that can hit. I believe we can play with anyone.”
“We get along very well because our coaches know each other,” stated Tanner Atchinson, a Mamou squad member. “I knew some of the players from Ville Platte already. We used to be competitors, but once we came together to play on the same team, it is like a brother hood now. In the regional tournament, we started off kind of shaky, but then as we played, we started to bond together and it may a big difference.”
In regional play, the Evangeline all-stars went 2-0, defeating Kaplan twice. In game one, Evangeline took only five innings to come away with the 12-2 win.
After blanking Kaplan in the top of the first, the all-stars plated a single run in the bottom of the first. Duplechin doubled and scored on a sacrifice bunt by D. Boone.
Evangeline did not allow a run from Kaplan once again in the top of the second. A single run from Evangeline in the bottom half of the second doubled the all-stars lead.
Kaplan got on the board in the top of the third to cut the lead to 2-1. However, Evangeline extended the score back to 3-1 after plating another run in the bottom of the third.
After allowing Kaplan a second run in the top of the fourth, Evangeline got things going on offense. The all-stars batted around and plated nine runs in the bottom of the fourth pull away for good. Game two against Kaplan was a little closer. Evangline had to hold off a late Kaplan rally to hold on to an 8-5 win. Evangeline lead 2-0 after one inning of play and 5-1 at the close of the second inning.
Evangeline scored a single run in the top of the third to take a 6-1 lead and held that lead through the fourth inning. Kaplan plated three runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the score to 6-3.
Evangeline added two more runs in the top of seventh to increase the margin to five runs. Kaplan tried to rally in the bottom of the fifth, plating two runs. However, the Evangeline pitching staff shut the door to close out the game.