VP Dixie Youth Majors, Minors headed to state

BY: TRACEY JAGNEAUX
Sports Editor

On Tuesday evening, the Ville Platte Dixie Youth Major and Minor all-stars both reached the State Finals by taking home the South Regional Tournament championships.
This is the second year in a row that both the 12U and 10U all-stars win the regional title and punch their ticket to the best 2 out of 3 State Championship Series.
Last year the 12U all-stars won the state title and participated at the Dixie Youth World Series in Lexington, South Carolina.
The Ville Platte Majors will now face off against Winnsboro on Friday in Alexandria. Game time is set for 6 p.m. Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. An if necessary game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
The Ville Platte Minors take on Minden, the North Region Champion. Game one will be played Friday in Alexandria. Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. The second game of the series would be played Saturday at 10 a.m. An if necessary game is scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m.
The two teams took totally different routes to the South Region Championship.
For the Majors, Ville Platte had to battle back from a loss to Morgan City on Monday to make it to the championship game on Tuesday. Ville Platte entered Tuesday needing to beat the same Morgan City team twice to land a spot in the State Playoffs.
Ville Platte looked like it was going to cruise to the finals after the first two games. The Majors defeated Ponchatula and Sabine by the combined score of 23-0. However, a stumble in game three to Morgan City, gave Ville Platte their first loss.
Ville Platte bounced back against Sabine on Monday, motoring their way to a 12-1 win. This set up a scenario where Ville Platte had to defeat Morgan City twice to capture the regional title.
In the first game, Ville Platte got a stellar performance from Peyton Feutch on the mound and collected five hits, including a solo home run from Jack LaHaye to take down Morgan City 5-3.
The rubber match game between Ville Platte and Morgan City was not as close as thought. Daegan Mitchell struck out 10 and Ville Platte pounded the ball for nine hits in an 8-3 win. The big hits of the game came from Feutch and Soileau as they both belted out solo home runs.
The Ville Platte Minors won the title by going undefeated throughout the tournament. Ville Platte outscored their opponents 41-21 to capture the title.
Easy wins in the first three ball games gave Ville Platte great confidence that helped propel them through the rest of the tournament. Ville Platte scored wins over St. Mary Central 7-2, Bossier 5-0 and Tioga 8-4 to open the tournament.
Game four was a come from behind barn-burner. Ville Platte found themselves down 3-0 after the first inning.
The Minor all-stars plated a single run in the fifth to cut into the lead. In the sixth inning, Ville Platte scraped and scratched four runs to take the 4-3 win over West Monroe.
The championship game pitted Ville Platte against Bossier for the second time in the tournament. This time the two teams combined for 29 runs, as Ville Platte held on to a 17-12 win.