The Oak Grove Tigers dynasty added some more gold to their trophy case after cashing in on their third straight state baseball championship. The Tigers came out swinging against DeQuincy in the state championship game but Oak Grove gave up a nine run lead which put the game into extra innings. In the 12th inning, sophomore, Tanner Duff, drilled the walk-off hit to name Oak Grove as state champions for the third straight season. This trio of baseball stars earned the latest Aaron’s Aces honors.
Youth softball stars celebrate regular season ceremony
Updated: May. 29, 2023 at 6:46 PM CDT
|
By Megan Murray
The Monroe Youth Girls Softball League honored its young sluggers during an awards ceremony. The 8U softball stars compete for the league championship Saturday.
Arkansas will host regionals for the 11th time in program history. The regional field will feature four teams, including the Razorbacks, playing in a double-elimination format.
The LSU women’s basketball team traveled to Washington D.C. to celebrate its national championship title. A special ceremony was held for the team at the White House on Friday, May 26.
Karson Trichel led OCS to its tenth state championship behind a one hit shutout, earning him MVP honors. The sophomore LSU commit only gave up one run in 20 innings of work this postseason.
It hasn’t been the season that the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs have envisioned but they still have a chance to defend their conference title this weekend in Houston. The Diamond Dogs enter the C-USA tournament as the sixth seed with their first test being against third seeded Charlotte. Louisiana Tech has made the regionals the past two seasons, if they want a bid this year, they will have to win the C-USA title for a second straight year.
The Neville Tigers have found their news basketball head coach, replacing Philip Craig, who coached the Tigers for 22 years. Derek Lopez comes to Neville after coaching at St. Frederick for the past three seasons. Lopez lead St. Frederick to a 17-10 record and 6-2 district record last season.
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs wrapped up their regular season with a win over The UTSA Roadrunners (7-5). The seniors shined in their final home game, Philip Matulia slammed a three run homer, Landon Tomkins pitched five innings, only allowing one hit and a run with four strikeouts. Louisiana Tech now switches their focus to the C-USA tournament which starts on Wednesday. The sixth seeded Bulldogs will face third seeded Charlotte 49ers on Wednesday at 9:00 A.M.
KaVontae Turpin has had a special but not an easy journey to becoming Neville’s and The Dallas Cowboys first return specialist to make it to a NFL Pro Bowl. Turpin’s homecoming at the Pecanland Mall brought a crowd full of fans to celebrate the hometown hero. The city of Monroe showed their appreciation to the local NFL star by naming May 20th, KaVontae Turpin day.
Orville “Buddy” Davis, legendary Lincoln Parish sports writer, donated part of his estate to the Louisiana Methodist Children’s Home. In Buddy’s honor, they used his donation to build the O.K. “Buddy” Memorial Ball Field.
Allie Wainwright, Anna Cate Miller and Lily Wainwright helped lead Claiborne Christian to back-to-back state championship titles. Allie Wainwright hit a solo home run in the first inning of the championship game. Miller allowed just one run on three hits, while striking out 11. As the only senior on the team, Lily Wainwright scored a run to secure the title.
West Monroe Head Coach Wade Simoneaux addressed the heated exchange between himself and Barbe Head Coach Glenn Cecchini following the Rebels 10-4 loss in the state championship game.
The Barbe Buccaneers have been dynamic on offense all season long, putting up 347 total runs and only allowing 36 runs with 20 shutouts on the season. The Buccaneers finally met their match with the West Monroe Rebels. West Monroe lead 4-1 in the top of the 7th, the Rebels were three outs away from their second straight state championship. A complete meltdown in the frame lead to nine Barbe runs that included a grand slam. The Bucanners put the game away and winning their 12th state championship, 10-4 the final. West Monroe finishes their season with
The non-select division IV state title game was full of mixed emotions for both teams. The Oak Grove Tigers were leading the DeQuincy Tigers, 9-1, heading into the sixth inning. DeQuincy didn’t miss a beat and put up seven unanswered runs in the sixth to cut the lead to only one. DeQuincy would go to add one more in the seventh, putting the Oak Grove Tigers on the ropes in the bottom. Off a rouge pitch by the DeQuincy catcher, Luke Simmons slides home to tie it up and send the game to extra innings. The game went all the way to the 12th, where Tanner Duff nails the walk-off hit to secure Oak Grove’s third straight state title.
The OCS Eagles are no stranger to championship games and they proved that with a dominating win over Ascension Catholic (8-0). Karson Trichel played lights out on the mound as he only allowed one hit and no runs allowed in six innings. First year head coach, Robby Devinney, lead the Eagles to their 10th state title win in his first year as head coach.
Family Community is making history as they get ready to suit up for their first championship game in program history against top ranked Avoyelles Charter. (Friday at 11:00 A.M). The OCS Eagles are looking for revenge from last season after they lost in the state title game, now they have to get through Ascension Catholic to bring home their 10th baseball championship. (Friday at 2:00 P.M). The Oak Grove Tigers look to continue their dynasty and win their third straight championship over the DeQuincy Tigers.
The West Monroe Rebels came out sluggish in the first five innings against the Sam Houston Broncos. The Rebels started out with four errors and the Broncos made them pay as they put up three runs. Entering the bottom of the sixth, the Rebels still scoreless, Trey Hawsey, slams an RBI double to get West Monroe on the board. In the bottom of the 7th, Rebels down two runs, West Monroe capitalizes on two errors and LSU commit, John Pearson, comes up clutch bringing in the two game winning runs. Now West Monroe switches their focus to Barbe as they look to repeat as state champions.
The Wossman boys track & field team only has five athletes but what they lack in numbers, they more than make up for in talent. The Wildcats had 14 top five finishes to total 59 points, which gave the Wildcats the three-point edge over state runner-up University to take home the LHSAA Class 3A State Championship. The five athletes outstanding showing on the big stage earned them this week’s Aaron’s Aces honors.
The Lady Techsters season comes to an end after falling to Middle Tennessee, 5-4 in the first round of the Conference USA tournament. LA Tech finished its season with a 32-24 record, including a 13-12 mark in C-USA play.
Jackson was one of 2,500 students to graduate from the University of Pittsburg on April 30, completing a degree in social sciences from the College of General Studies 40 years after he originally left the school for the NFL Draft.
West Monroe defeated St. Amant to punch its fourth straight ticket to Sulphur. John Pearson hit a two-run home run in the first inning. For the second consecutive game, Tyler Roark blasted his second home run of the season.
By Aaron Dietrich, Megan Murray and Brendon Fairbairn
West Monroe defeated St. Amant in a rematch of last year’s 5A State Championship game, 5-1. The Rebels are one win away from heading back to the state tournament. Neville and Sterlington dropped the first game in their best of three series, 11-1 and 3-0 respectively. Mangham (9-0), Oak Grove (4-1) and Choudrant (2-1) all punch their tickets to Sulphur.
It didn’t take long for Ouachita to find their new head football coach. Less than 24 hours after Todd Garvin left to become West Monroe’s new head coach, the Lions promoted defensive coordinator, Benjy Lewis, to lead the Lions. Lewis spent the last two seasons with Ouachita as their defensive coordinator, before that he coached at Jena, West Ouachita, Richwood and Neville as an assistant coach.
OCS shut out Covenant Christian 7-0 to clinch its sixth straight trip to the state tournament. Karson Trichel allowed just three hits with six strikeouts through six innings of scoreless work. Jett Hudnall provided the biggest swing of the night with a grand slam in the second inning.
The Lady Techsters fell to in-state rival Ragin’ Cajuns for their last regular season home game, 8-1. Tech finished the regular season with a 16-9 record at Dr. Billy Bundrick Field.
Neville and West Monroe both faced elimination games in the LHSAA baseball regionals. Michael Plummer secured the Tigers trip to the quarterfinals with a no-hitter. Behind the junior duo of pitcher Brennan Eager and slugger Hayden Federico, the defending State Champion Rebels head back to the quarterfinals.
West Monroe announced the hiring of Todd Garvin as the next head coach of the West Monroe football program. Garvin has spent the past two years as athletics director and head football coach at Ouachita Parish High School. He led the Lions to a 15-10 record, including a historic win over the Rebels in 2021. Garvin coached 16 years for the Rebels as an assistant football coach. In a press release, Garvin said, “It is an honor to take the helm of a program with such a rich history of winning along with coaching greats such as Don Shows and Jerry Arledge. I consider this one of the top jobs in the country.”
Claiborne Christian softball repeats as select division V state champions after defeating St. Joesph’s-Plaucheville (4-1). This is the Lady Crusaders sixth state title in school history. Sophomore, Allie Wainright hit a homerun in the first inning to lift the Lady Crusaders early. Claiborne Christian also plated two more runs off errors.
Winning the 1A regional championship is nothing new to OCS track and field. Both the boys and the girls repeated as regional champs this past weekend, earing them the KNOE Little Caesars Team of the Week award. Now the Eagles switch their focus to repeating as state champs.
The reigning National Championship LSU Tigers have landed one of the top players from last season via the NCAA Transfer Portal in Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith.
The New Orleans Saints selected Clemson defensive tackle Bryan Bresee in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft at No. 29 overall on Thursday, April 27.
The head coaching job for West Monroe football continues to draw interest; so much in fact that they extended their application deadline. Sources tell KNOE’s sports director, Aaron Dietrich, that at least three more applicants applied on Thursday. Former Many head coach and three time state champion, Jess Curtis, interviewed for the West Monroe head coaching position after accepting the head coaching job at Natchitoches Central this offseason. Neville’s current defensive coordinator, Mike Collins, and Sterlington assistant coach, Bobby Breen, also interviewed on Thursday. Interviews should wrap up Tuesday with an announcement coming later in the week.
The West Monroe Lady Rebels come storming into the non-select division I semi-finals with a lot of momentum. Fueled by Macy Nordstrom who had 23 strikeouts in just two playoff games. They have a tall task ahead of them as they go head-to-head with top seeded St. Amant. In non-select division III, the Sterlington Lady Panthers are also making their third straight appearance to Sulphur. Emma Brown, Aaliyah Alfaro and Maddie Taylor have been leading the charge for their championship run. Brown has 7 homeruns and 43 RBI’S on the season and Aaliyah Alfaro has 4 homeruns. Maddie Taylor has been one of the best pitchers in the state with 18 wins under her belt. The top ranked Panthers take on fifth ranked Jena on Friday.
ULM dropped its only home game in the midst of seven away games to Stephen F. Austin, 14-8. While the Warhawks fall to 15-26 on the season, former Northeast Louisiana stars had standout performances for the Lumberjacks.
LSU is wrapping up its spring football practices with the annual National L Club Spring Game presented by Tony Chachere’s in Tiger Stadium on Saturday, April 22.
The Southeastern Conference is looking at possibly taking away home games or forcing forfeiture for teams whose fans storm the field, according to Pat Forde with Sports Illustrated.
Calvin softball celebrating another successful season with a Little Caesars pizza party. The Lady Cougars finished undefeated in district play and took home a district title. Calvin also won their first playoff game against Castor (13-3)
In the Non-Select Division III softball playoffs, top seed Sterlington dominated Pine, 10-1. Maddie Taylor pitched a complete game and hit a two-run home run at the plate. Aaliyah Alfaro and Jaleeyah Alford also added home runs. The Lady Panthers advance to the quarterfinals against Pine Prairie.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/6DK24XEQVZEB7AVJMBQ3EGWGAA.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/JASQGKCQQVBLRBMKUHOB7QF7EU.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/RZUWMUBHERDDHFGT3ZRPGIV2SI.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/BXG6BQGCVBFCDNKWZBWSYKYFCA.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/BYAEWL2L2VENJMSII2MJCECISU.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/K4ZITRGHHNC3PPJHMIRNYWJ2OE.png)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/AKKF27C43VB5NNMPGJX3DFAQSM.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/M4NE2NEAPZFEPDNJ77N7UGSUC4.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/AMYGSPP5BBCNXM7WW2EFFLZIKE.jpg)
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/AF7TCX6FM5AY5ARSWTBYWQRFLA.jpg)