Champions: Youth team wins big local event

The stage was set for a dramatic sports moment last weekend at the Houma Girls Softball Complex.

It was the final inning of the Babe Ruth Softball Southwest National Regional Championship Tournament.

The Terrebonne Parish U8 softball All-Stars were in the field. They led by one run – the score was 3-2 to be exact.

The local kids had played their hearts out throughout the summer and had posted a 19-3 record to this point. They had completed this entire tournament without a strikeout and very few errors – quite a feat for children their age.

There were two outs. The tying run was at second base.

The hitting team was the Harahan All-Stars – the reigning Louisiana State Champions, and the same team that had handed Terrebonne all three of its losses on the season.

The count was full, and the next pitch would likely decide the fate of the game.

The bat cracked – the ball was hit in fair territory.

Fans froze. They steadily followed the ball’s path with their eyes.

“Time stopped,” Terrebonne All-Stars assistant coach Kelly Dehart said when explaining the last at-bat of the game.

A split second later, a glove popped – a Terrebonne defender parked under the softball and made the catch.

The game was officially over, and the tournament was complete. Celebration ensued. Terrebonne was officially the U8 Southwest Regional Softball Champions.

A week after winning the Babe Ruth Softball Southwest Championships in Houma, players and coaches from the team are still ecstatic after their dramatic run through the tournament.

They say that the championship victory over their previous nemesis was the icing on the cake in what was a miraculous summer for the team.

“This is beyond amazing.” Dehart said. “When you take into account how far these girls have come and how hard they’ve worked to get there, it’s just incredible – it’s amazing. We are all so proud of them and everything that they’ve done to win this tournament.”

“It was just the best feeling in the world,” second baseman Jasmin Dobson said. “It was a close game, and we all did it together. It was great.”

Humble beginnings create ‘Special Team’

Immediately following the championship win, Dehart said she was reminded of the team’s first tastes of softball at the U8 division.

Six players on the 2013 championship team played in the age group last year – a team that was very inexperienced.

“We had six of these girls last year,” Dehart said. “And in our first game that we played, I think we lost like 26-1.”

From being beaten soundly in their opening game, the young local talent rebounded and finished third in Regionals – a finish that had assistant coach Bryan Porche believing that the 2013 year could be special.

“We came into the year knowing that we had a chance to be really good,” Porche said. “We had a lot of our infield back, and even with us being younger the year before, we still had a good team. We really sort of had an idea that this was a group that had a chance to be pretty special.”

Porche was right – even if it didn’t look promising at the start.

Terrebonne rolled into Babe Ruth play a bit later than most teams, and ran into Harahan at some early tournaments.

The Louisiana state champs cruised past Terrebonne at each stop – each loss coming by the same 3-1 score.

“They were the only team to beat us,” Porche said. “They took us down a few times at the early tournaments, but they had been playing a little while longer than us – they had a little more time to adjust to the rules and everything. … We just kept getting better and better and better and better. And by the last few tournaments, we were there.”

Hitting, defense spark title run

Porche’s sentiment was right – Terrebonne entered the Southwest Regionals playing their best ball of the season.

They entered the event with a long winning streak and a solid record on the year.

The reason for that success is two-fold: Hitting and defense.

Terrebonne possesses a lineup that is sound from top to bottom.

Dobson, Catcher Mallory Dehart, shortstop Lillie Mazur, third baseman Kalyn Dehart and first baseman Alexis Porche were among the team’s top sluggers.

Coaches touted that there wasn’t an easy out in the lineup, and consistent contact was a strength throughout the season.

“We had a lot of girls who could hit,” Kelly Dehart said. “Our lineup was very, very solid.”

Defensively, the Terrebonne team had a knack for making the routine play – something that isn’t found often in most teams in this age group.

Bryan Porche said the team had phenomenal fielding in the infield, while also possessing an outfield full of players who could make catches.

“Throughout the year, we may have only dropped one ball,” Porche said. “And that’s in 20 games or more. With kids this age, you don’t usually see that happen. With kids this age, every play is usually unpredictable.”

With the powerful hitting and stingy defense and their disposal, Terrebonne rolled through the big tournament with an undefeated record in bracket play – one of those wins a 9-3 drubbing of Harahan.

From there, they continued forward and punched a ticket into the championship game where they again had to meet their rivals, who had cruised through the loser’s bracket and into the final two.

Harahan had to beat Terrebonne twice to take the title.

But they couldn’t even do it once.

Terrebonne trailed 2-0 in the fourth inning of the championship game when Mazur (the tournament’s MVP) smacked a ball off the outfield fence that plated two runs to tie the game.

They later scratched out another run to take a 3-2 lead.

Harahan didn’t go down without a fight, and had the tying runner in scoring position in the final inning.

But the Terrebonne All-Stars relied on their defense one last time to retire the last batter and to seal the win.

“When they have the tying runner on second, it’s nerve-wracking,” Bryan Porche said with a laugh. “But our kids weren’t nervous. We’ve had a good group all year. We called the infield in and we had a huddle, and we just told them to go out there and have fun.

“If you do your best, learn something new about the game and have fun, you’ll never be a loser in this sport. Our players did that all season. … I’ve been doing this a long time. This is the best feeling you could have as a coach.”

The players rejoiced their victory by doing what girls their age do best.

“We screamed,” Mazur said.

“And then we got to pour water on our coach,” Alexis Porche added. “That was awesome.”

With the win, the Terrebonne All-Stars became eligible to compete in the national tournament in Gainesville, Fla.

But that tournament was played this past weekend, and Terrebonne’s coaches said they didn’t have the time to gather the funds to compete on short notice.

All’s well that ends well, they say. Even without the spot in Florida, the Terrebonne team ended their season with a Cinderella story – one they will remember forever.

“This was the most fun that I’ve ever had in my life,” Jasmin Dobson said. “I play softball, because I love to make new friends. This summer I did that. I want to keep playing softball with these players forever.”

Members of the Terrebonne Parish U8 softball team celebrate with their trophies after winning the Babe Ruth Softball Southwest National Regional Championship in Houma. The youngsters swept through the event undefeated for the week. In the finals, they beat Harahan – the team who had given Terrebonne all three of its losses over the summer. 

JOSE DELGADO | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER