Leesville, La. —
A state championship in softball and a surprise trip to the semifinals in baseball earned the Belle Chasse Cardinals three of the top four honors on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 4A softball and baseball squads.
The Cardinals swept the softball honors, with senior pitcher Lauren Wilson earning Outstanding Player and Tony LaBella winning Coach of the Year.
BCHS baseball coach Buddy Turnage also won Coach of the Year, while Outstanding Player in baseball went to Zachary pitcher Zack Von Rosenberg for the second straight year, after leading the Broncos to their third consecutive state championship.
LaBella guided the Cardinals to their second softball state championship in his first year at the school. Leading the way was Wilson, who compiled a 20-4 record in the circle and hit .435 with 34 RBIs.
Turnage, in his second year at Belle Chasse, took the Cardinals to the semifinals a year after they failed to make the playoffs.
“I felt like we had the talent to win, we just had to get that mentality,” Turnage said. “So from Day 1, I told the kids to get into their heads that we were going to win. We had six of seven kids from the football team that won state and they were telling the other kids that they could win, too. We lost a game to Northshore, and after that, the kids really started going the extra mile, working on their own for an hour after practice and we just took off from there.”
Von Rosenberg pitched in and won his fourth straight state championship game. After leading Barbe to the Class 5A state championship as a freshman, he transferred to Zachary and led the Broncos to three 4A championships. The reigning Mr. Baseball finished the season with an 11-1 pitching record, while hitting .489 with 10 home runs and 45 RBIs to go along with 28 stolen bases.
Joining Wilson as pitchers on the softball team are Brianna Granger of Sam Houston, Samantha Hamby of West Ouachita and Brittany Gonzales of Live Oak.
The other baseball pitchers are Philip Menou of Sam Houston, Spencer Caffey of Teurlings Catholic and Anthony Van Gessel of Tioga.
The catchers are brother-and-sister duo Stuart and Emily Turner of Eunice.
Softball infielders are Stephanie Jaeger of Haughton, Kat Angeles of Belle Chasse, Meggie Burkett of West Ouachita and Natalie Fernandez of Live Oak.
The baseball infield is composed of first baseman Mack Gayle of Neville, second baseman Brandon Berthelot of Live Oak, shortstop Keith Hedrick of Belle Chasse and third baseman Tyler Girouard of Teurlings Catholic.
Softball outfielders are Shelby Derbonne of Alexandria, Chelsea Allen of Vandebilt Catholic and Karli Wainwright of Sam Houston, while the baseball outfielders are Skylar Barrentine of Sam Houston, Elon Grinstead of Tioga and Cam Pierce of Zachary.
Maile Goodwin of Leesville, Kim Kennedy of Sam Houston, Nichole Gross of West Ouachita, Caitlin Taylor of Neville and Ashley Taylor of Teurlings Catholic are utility players for softball.
Baseball utility players are Ben Hernandez of Zachary, Louie Armanini of St. Michael, Samuel Peterson of DeRidder, Tyler Theriot of Sam Houston and Ryan Smith of Benton.
Along with Goodwin, Leesville had three other representatives on the baseball and softball teams.
Brittany Funderburk and McKenna Goodwin were named to the honorable mention list on the softball team, while Troy Harry was named to the baseball squad.
Funderburk and Goodwin were both first-team members of the recent all-Vernon Parish softball team, while Harry was first-team all-parish on the baseball squad.
