Youthful accomplishment

BROUSSARD -- For the second straight week the VPGSA 6U All-Stars have had to battle back from the brink of elimination to claim a tournament title.
Only this time the title on the line was a major one, as the All-Stars fought heat and exhaustion to bring home the PONY Sectional Tournament Championship here this past weekend.
Ville Platte powered through the tournament having to play five games on Sunday, including four games in a row with no rest. The All-Stars finished with an overall record of 6-1.
Ville Platte will now travel to Youngsville on Saturday and Sunday to take part in the PONY Regional Tournament and possibly on to the PONY World Series in two weeks.
“Going into the weekend, we really did not know what we were getting ourselves into,” stated head coach Sadie Figueiredo after the tournament. “The girls did an amazing job. Saturday we took both of our games, and they did better than I ever imagined.”
“On Sunday, we faced our toughest challenge in the second game,” Figueiredo continued. “Livingston was a very good team. They were big and hit the ball really well. Even though we fell to them, the girls never gave up. They rebounded extremely well and wound up beating them in the championship. I cannot be more proud of their effort.”
On Saturday, Ville Platte opened play with a resounding 16-7 win over DeRidder. The All-Stars scored four runs in each of their four at bats and held DeRidder scoreless in the second inning to acquire their first win of the tournament.
Game two on Saturday saw the Ville Platte bats continue to heat up. The All-Stars again put up four runs in all four at bats to defeat Youngsville 16-9.
Ville Platte and Youngsville found themselves tied 4-4 after one inning of play, but the All-Stars were one better in each of the next two innings to seal the victory.
Ville Platte began play on Sunday at 9 a.m. and looked no worse for the early start as they pounced all over Youngsville for the second time in a 13-9 win. The All-Stars only managed two runs in the first inning, but still held a 2-0 lead.
Youngsville put up four runs in the second inning, however Ville Platte matched that run total to up their advantage to 6-4. The All-Stars tacked on three more runs in the third and four more runs in the fourth and proceeded to blank Youngsville the rest of the way.
The only blemish on the Ville Platte record came in the 1 p.m. game on Sunday. In that game, both teams combined for 54 runs, as the All-Stars fell 28-26 to Livingston.
Undeterred, Ville Platte bounced right back and picked up another win over Youngsville, this time in a 15-9 victory.
That win put Ville Platte in the championship game, where they had to beat the same Livingston team twice to take home the title.
In game six of the tournament, Ville Platte seized on an opportunity early in the game when Livingston could only muster two runs in the second inning and turned that into a 19-14 win.
The final game was another nail biter between the two clubs. The two teams exchanged four run innings up until the fifth inning when Ville Platte outscored Livingston 4-0 to take a 20-16 lead.
However, Livingston plated four runs in the top of the sixth to tie up the game. The All-Stars reached back one more time and put a single run across in the bottom half of the inning to cap off a 21-20 win.
“The director of PONY told me after the game that you don’t see professionals play four games in a row in that type of heat,” said Figueiredo. “That is a huge tribute to the effort of our team. These girls are amazing. We still have some work to do, but if we play the way we have the last two weeks, we have a chance.”