Memorable moments from state softball tournament

Published 6:00 pm Sunday, May 10, 2020

In this edition of the Strike Zone, staff writers Rodrick Anderson and Warren Arceneaux discuss their favorite memories from the state softball tournament.

What was the best large schools game you’ve seen?

WA: Sam Houston’s 2-1 win over defending champion Hahnville in the 2012 Class 5A championship game. It was a champion vs. champion game as Sam Houston had won the 4A title in 2011. The game was close and well played the whole way and featured two of the best defensive plays I’ve seen during 19 years of covering the tournament — a foul ball catch by Taylor Edwards and a throw from center field by Brooke Rozas to catch a runner at the plate to keep the game alive. Rozas later scored the winning run.

RA: DeRidder needed two rallies and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat North DeSoto 8-4 in the Class 4A semifinals in 2018. The Dragons tied the score at 4-4 with a run in the top of the seventh and got three consecutive outs with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning before scoring four in the eighth on a walk, a hit batter and a two-run hit by Brooklyn Green.

What was the best small schools game you’ve seen?

WA: Evangel’s 3-1 win over Rosepine in 14 innings in the 2009 Class 2A championship game. Neither team scored in the first 12 innings, then each got one run in the 13th before Evangel won it with a two-out, two-run double by Bailey Boggs in the 14th. Rosepine pitcher Christina Hamilton struck out 17 batters while Evangel’s Emily Rousseau fanned 20. The game capped a heartbreaking day for area teams, as Barbe lost in the 5A final and Sam Houston, Westlake, South Beauregard and Starks all lost in the semifinal round.

RA: As is often the case with smaller schools, many teams rely on junior high students to fill out their rosters. Two of those junior high players had possibly the biggest hits in program history for Starks in the 2006 Class C state championship game. Sixth-grader Gabby Miller hit a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning and scored the tying run on a double by Kelsey Bussell. Later, Bussell scored the winning run on a hit by sister and seventh-grader Baleigh Bussell, followed by an error to lift the Panthers to a 2-1 win over Marion, the program’s lone state championship.

What was the best individual performance you’ve seen?

WA: In last year’s Class 5A semifinal, Barbe’s Halie Pappion drove in five runs, including a tying two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning, then escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the inning to preserve Barbe’s 7-6 win over Airline.

RA: Baylee Corbello, one of the most dominant pitchers to come out of Southwest Louisiana, pitched two extra-inning complete games in a single day to lead Sam Houston to the state championship in its first season in Class 5A. In the semifinals, Corbello stuck out 17 and allowed one-hit in a 2-0 nine-inning win over St. Josephs’s of Baton Rouge. A few hours later, she struck out 14 over nine innings and hit a solo home run in the first inning in a 2-1 win over Hahnville.Sam Houston’s Brooke Rozas scores the winning run in the 2012 Class 5A semifinal. (Karen Wink / American Press)