Pitching Machine All-Stars finish season at state

JONESBORO – It was not quite the fairy tale ending that the Ville Platte Pitching Machine All-Stars had hoped for, but the young, talented players did make a splash at the Dixie Youth State Tournament this past weekend.
Riding their second place finish in the district tournament, the All-Stars came into the tournament with big priorities on their list.
Unfortunately, after sweeping through their pool play games, Ville Platte could not muster the offense needed to take them through bracket play, as they lost back-to-back games to end their season.
“It was a tremendous season for us,” stated head coach Nick Fontenot. “It was just one of those things where we just quit hitting the ball. But, I really believe the kids learned a ton that will help them going forward. I want to thank the parents and the players for making it a fun season. I would also like to thank my assistant coaches Jake Veillon, Josh Manuel and Tibby Figueiredo. I could have not gotten these players ready without their help.”
During pool play Ville Platte’s offense generated the runs necessary to be the first place seed heading into the championship bracket. In wins over Minden, East Ouachita South and Alexandria, the All-Stars produced 38 runs on 39 hits, with several of those coming in clutch two-out situations. That, coupled with some outstanding defense, gave Ville Platte a ton of hope going into bracket play.
However, the first game in the hunt for the state title did not produce the amount of offense necessary to begin the journey toward that championship, as the All-Stars fell to a hot hitting Haughton team 19-7. Ville Platte started the game on the right path, holding Haughton to only three runs in the top of the first before collecting six runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning.
Aiden Lambright led things off for the All-Stars with a single and was able to touch the plate on a double by Payton Veillon.
Layne Gremillion followed that up with a double of his own to make the score 3-2. After a ground out to short stop, Will Chapman recorded the third double of the inning to plate Gremillion.
A fly out to center field produced the second out of the inning. Nevertheless, Ville Platte was not finished scoring, as Kendarious Doucet ripped a triple into the outfield, getting Chapman home. Landon Fontenot picked Doucet up by doubling and then scored on a couple of throwing errors by the Haughton defense, making the score 6-3.
From that point on, the Ville Platte offense went stagnate, scoring only one more run in the bottom of the fourth when Doucet led off with a single and later scored on a single by Sully Manuel. Haughton picked up six runs in the top of the third, two runs in the top of the fifth and finished the game out with seven runs in the top of the sixth.
That game dropped Ville Platte into the loser’s side of the championship bracket and pitted them against East Ouachita North.
Once again the All-Stars were unable to produce much in the way of offense as they fell 5-1 which eliminated them from the tournament.
East Ouachita began the game plating a solo run in the top of the first inning. Ville Platte responded with a single run of their own to tie the game. Veillon laced a one out single into the outfield and advanced all the way to home plate on back-to-back singles off of the bats of Gremillion and Brecken Figueiredo.
East Ouachita came charging back in the top of the second by adding two more runs. They then tacked on single runs in the third and fifth innings to finish out the game. Ville Platte tried to mount a comeback over the next several innings, but could not push a runner past second base, as everything hit was right at the East Ouachita defense.