Flooded crops

 Farmers throughout Evangeline Parish took a massive hit to their crop production with the widespread flooding that inundated the area because of heavy rains that fell within a few days of each other in late April and early May. 
 “It’s widespread,” County Agent Todd Fontenot said to describe the amount of the damage associated with the flooding. 
Ted Buller described the damage as “pretty devastating.” Buller, along with his nephew Brad Fontenot farm 1200 acres of rice and 1100 acres of soybeans in the Pine Point area. “We’re currently trying to plant beans, but it’s still wet. We’re not able to get back to the fields just yet.”
 Mamou Mayor Ricky Fontenot heard through word of mouth around town that some of the farmers in the area “have lost all of their crops.”
 One Mamou area farmer that sustained damage is Cody Bieber, who farms with his father Larry at Bieber Farms. “We had quite a bit of acres that went under the water, and it’s too early to tell how much damage will be done,” he said. “We had some that stayed under water seven and eight days.” 
Todd Fontenot went on to say most of damage associated with the flooding is to the rice fields. “We tried to get an estimate last week, and I guess we came somewhere in the neighborhood of around 15,000 acres of rice that was flooded over when it shouldn’t have been and in most cases at least for a number of days,” he said. “Now there’s still a lot of that area even into the Miller’s Lake area and The Platain that still has water on top of rice.” 
 “We have a lot of farmers in the Vidrine, Reddell, and Bond area that are still under water currently, and they have rice crops that are underneath that water,” Buller added. “It’s gonna be devastating to a lot of guys once this water recedes.”
Fontenot added, “A lot of it has kinda receded, but there’s still a lot a lot of water covering some rice that shouldn’t be on top of it where it shouldn’t be. So acreage wise that’s getting close to one-third of our acres in the parish, and most already got covered or flooded over where it shouldn’t have been.”
 The amount of flooding causes the rice stems to become stressed and pushes farmers back in applying fertilizers and herbicides. “For some of that rice, it was time for herbicide application or fertilizer application, and in some cases if you’re not applying some fertilizer and you get those big rains, you lose some of that fertilizer,” Fontenot said. “Some of it washes out. Some of it goes down to the bottom pretty quick in a flood with rice, but in no way is it good for it.”
 “A lot of the rice that’s being affected,” according to Fontenot, “is about midseason already when normally you put the final application of nitrogen, so they’re gonna be delayed even though the water goes down.” He continued, “You want that rice plant to get back strong before you apply that fertilizer so that it can take it. If it’s stressed and weakened, it’s not gonna utilize the fertilizer like it needs to if it’s not already suffering.”
 Buller said his soybean plants will not be set back a whole lot but remains anxious of the outcome of his and other farmers’ rice yields. “We don’t know the outcome of what the rice yield is
gonna be with all this water on it because most rice is at a very critical stage in its growing period to not have all this water covering the top of it,” he said.
 Fontenot went on to describe the kind of water flowing into the rice fields. “It’s muddy water,” he said. “It’s not clear.  It’s not just clear rain water. It’s muddy bayou water and runoff of soil, so that eliminates light.”  
 Bieber farms between 2100 and 2200 acres of rice, and around 400 or 500 of those acres were flooded. He does not know the long-term effect the flooding will have. “We never experienced it at this stage in the rice to know what it’s gonna do,” he said. “I’ve never experienced this much water at this stage of the rice. I’m sure it will have some yield effect. I don’t know.”
 “So we won’t know until we harvest it what exactly the yield loss will be, but there will definitely be a yield loss in the long term effect at this time, but we won’t know until August what’s gonna take place,” added Buller.
 While Buller predicts a yield loss, he remains unsure on how the rice prices will be affected. “Arkansas lost a tremendous amount of rice as well, and I think that could possibly maybe make a price swing, but time will tell on that issue.”
 Soybeans, according to Fontenot, were not as affected as the rice because it is earlier in the planting process. “We’d estimated we had about one-third of the beans planted in the parish, maybe a little less,” he said. “About 60-70 percent of what was planted is most likely going to be replanted, maybe not quite that high because a lot of the farmers who were able to plant soybeans planted on higher ground not so much is rice fields.”
 Like the rice, the stands of the soybean plants will be impacted by the flooding. “Soybeans were just planted, so it’s mostly gonna affect the stand to try to get a stand,” said Fontenot. “If some were planted, they just rotted in the ground because they stayed so wet.”
 Another area of Evangeline Parish agriculture that was impacted is crawfish because some ponds flooded over as well. “Fisherman even in ponds that didn’t flood over weren’t able to crawfish in some of the ponds because you’re already holding a lot of water in a crawfish pond, and then that water gets deeper,” Fontenot said. “Sometimes it covers your traps even before you can let it settle back down, so a lot of crawfishermen were not able to fish some ponds. Some people couldn’t get to ponds. It causes a lot of extra work, and stress, and issues.”
 According to Bieber, “Some of (our crawfish ponds) got flooded, too, but not as bad as the rice.”
 Pastures and hay fields around the parish have also been hit hard. “Several acres have gone under water,” said Fontenot. “A few guys had to move cattle around because the pastures were flooded, and the cattle were standing in water.”
 One crop that was exempt from the flood damage is sweet potatoes that are grown on the higher ground in the eastern part of the parish between the Faubourg and Grand Prairie areas. Larry Fontenot continues to farm his family’s sweet potatoes after the passing of his father Earl.
 “The flood did not affect us that much,” admitted Larry. “The first rain event that took place was a welcomed rain event because we were very dry, and then the one that fell during the middle of the week was not needed, but it did not cause any problems for us other than just a start in planting.”
 “We didn’t have any crop planted at the time,” he continued. “We didn’t have any flooding. We didn’t have any fields that flooded or crops that got destroyed with this recent rain. When you get water backed up into a sweet potato field, usually it’s because we’re very close to a big drainage ditch, canal, or bayou. But for the most part all of your sweet potato ground is relatively high.”    

Warriors dominate at Bernie Moore

 Bernie Moore Track Stadium on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge was again home of the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Outdoor Track and Field State Meet May 4-6, 2017. Oakdale sent 11 students to take part in the second day of the event on Friday with its boys’ and girls’ teams each coming out in the top 10 of the Class 2A rankings as seven of the competitors received medals from LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine.
 “It was exciting,” said boys’ coach Michael Deville. “We had several of our kids make it to the podium, and we had a couple state champions. So that’s always fun.”
 Two feet separated Hunter Longino and Travian Daily in the boys’ discus as Longino threw for 135-feet to come out in first place and Daily came out second with a throw of 133-feet. 
 “Much less qualifying two guys in the same event but going one-two in the same event is pretty impressive,” Deville said. “We have a senior who’s led the way all year, and we had a sophomore who had been chasing him. And tonight the sophomore ended up winning the state championship, and the senior came out second.”
 “What a great senior year I finished out,” Daily said. “I'm the District champion, Regional champion, and now state runner up in 2A. I've been having trouble with my knee but everything happens for a reason. I thank God for allowing me to make it this far. Congratulations to Hunter Longino for being the 2017 state champion in discus. We came out one and two. Coach said we was the first to do this at state for Oakdale. Thank God for blessing me with amazing coaches that pushed me every step of the way.”
 A Lady Warrior also earned a first-place medal throwing the discus in the shadows of Tiger Stadium and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Darien Phillips with a mark of 113-03 beat out K'Yana Jackson from Jonesboro-Hodge and Anna Bristo from Ouachita Christian. 
 Jondasha Davis, who took home a first-place medal in the state indoor meet, took home two medals this time around. She finished behind Kaprecia Cowans of Jonesboro-Hodge and Carlyle Wirtz of Ouachita Christian to come out third in the girls’ long jump with a mark of 16-11. In the girls’ 4x100, she along with Treshunda Joseph, Alexis Davis, and Shadiamond Johnson finished behind Mentorship Academy and Riverside to come out third running 51.25.
 “It’s always a big deal to have girls come and compete at this level,” said girls’ coach Ladeshia George. “It’s very rewarding for them to understand how they rank amongst other people in the state. Coming from a small parish, it’s good to know that you can compete with other people.”
 Both coaches expressed ways they can use this opportunity to build for next season. “The big thing is that we have another guy a sophomore who’s gonna be able and step in and take the place of the senior, and the kid who qualified tonight should just get better,” Deville said. “I’m excited about our field events for the next couple years.”
 “Luckily and fortunately for the girls, we are a very young team,” said George. “We’re losing two seniors that are a big part of the team; however, we have some freshmen in place right now that will be able to step up into those roles and perform at the same level to keep us where we are.”

Oakdale finishes in the Top 12 at State

 Oakdale finishes in the Top 12 at State
Oakdale Tennis sent 11 players to the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA State Tennis Tournament held April 24 - 28, 2017, at UL-Monroe, Monroe, La. While there the Warriors came out in the Top 12. 
“Another successful season in the books,” said head coach Zealon Solomon. “Didn't end as we wanted, but finishing in the Top 12 is quite the accomplishment itself. Proud of all of my kids, their hard work and their dedication.” 
Solomon congratulated Camryn Bullock on making the Boys Singles Round of 16. He defeated Jarrett Berthelot of Oak Grove 2-1 in the first round but fell in the next round 2-0 to Ascension Christian’s Bryce Walker. Walker went on to lose in the quarterfinals to the eventual semi-finalist Arteen Reza from Newman, Isidore. 
In Boys’ Doubles Andrew Sao and Tyler Tichy lost out in the opening match to the duo from Dunham 2-0. Travian Dailey and Dawson Noblitt also lost out in the opening match to Dunham 2-0. The Kris Pelt, Daniel Rodriguez ticket suffered the same fate losing 2-0 in the opening round to Calvary Baptist.
On the girls’ side, Cheyenne Bertrand and Taylor Willis lost their opening match to St. Frederick 2-0. The ticket of Anna Gill and Madeline Jarnagin similarly went down 2-0 in the opening match to Ascension Episcopal.
“To my seniors, Travian Dailey and Tyler Tichy, thank you for buying in to the program we started building three years ago and going above and beyond to lead by example every match- win or loss,” Solomon said.
“I enjoyed every second of my high school tennis career, said Dailey. “I remember I was just a freshmen who didn't have a care in the world. Then going into my sophomore year, I wanted to be the best. That same drive brought me to state two times in a row. I wouldn't be anywhere without my coach Zealon Solomon. He came and changed the whole program around! Bringing winning records and believed in us as players. My years as an OHS tennis Warrior brought many feelings in play.” 
“Thanks to everyone for the prayers, support, and appreciation for what we strive for each and every match,” concluded Solomon.

Oakdale Track sends 11 athletes to the State Meet

 Eleven track and field athletes from Oakdale High School qualified to compete in the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Outdoor Track & Field State Championships held May 4 - 6, 2017, at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium on the campus of LSU, Baton Rouge, La.
“It’s exciting for us,” coach Michael Deville said. “It’s exciting to get a few more kids every year and give them that experience, and the kids are excited.”
Oakdale runs into the State meet as the Lady Warriors are the 2017 District 3-2A Champions and the Warriors are runners-up. Highlighting the list of winners are Jondasha Davis who won the District Top Athlete Award finishing first in the 100-meter and first in the long jump. Darien Phillips (Outstanding Field Award) finished first in the discus and second in the shot put, and Phillip Poullard (Outstanding Track Award) came out first in the 110-meter hurdles and in the 300-meter hurdles.
 The list of boys who qualified for State is Travian Dailey qualified in the discus, Terrance Holmes qualified in the triple jump, Hunter Longino qualified in the discus, and James Evins qualified in the 100-meter dash.
 Evins is heading into the meet gimpy, but, according to his coach, he is getting back on track. “The meet before the district meet he kinda strained a hamstring, and we got him immediately some therapy and rehabbing him with the trainers and everything,” said Deville. And he’s getting better. Everyday he’s getting better. He ran good enough at the regional meet to qualify, so all he’s got now is that one chance. He says he feels good, so hopefully he’s ready to go.”
 The list of girls who qualified for State is Jondasha Davis qualified in the 100 and the long jump, Treshunda Joseph qualified as part of the relays, Alexis Davis qualified as part of the relays in the 4-by-1 and the 4-by-2, Shadiamond Johnson qualified in all three relays, Annisia Moton, and Darien Phillips qualified in the discus. Two alternates Stasi Adams and Tynishia Murray are also heading to Bernie Moore.
 Deville talked highly of his freshman Shadiamond Johnson. “She qualified in the 4-by-1, the 4-by-2, and the 4-by-4,” he said. “She’s a special kid. She’s gonna be a good little athlete.”
 Over the course of the season, the program at Oakdale had two athletes who set records. Darien Phillips set a possible school record in the first meet of the season at the Red Devil Relays at Pickering. She placed first in the discus measuring 116-feet 10-inches. Travian Dailey set a new meet record at the Gent Relays in Crowley measuring 126-feet six-inches with his first-place finish in the discus. 
“That’s a positive,” Deville said about his record setters. “That means the kids are working, and that’s all we can ask for them is to keep working and try to get better each week out there.”
Also over the course of the season, several track athletes took home outstanding performance honors. “Since I’ve been here at Oakdale, we’ve been fortunate that we’ve had some kids that individually go out there and win some events,” Deville said. “And this year Jondasha Davis has been a strong person for us. Hunter Longino is just a sophomore, and he’s won some outstanding field medals. We getting him two more years, so that’s gonna be fun.”

Mamou advances past Oakdale to reach the best-of-three second round

Mamou advances past Oakdale to reach the best-of-three second round
 It took five innings for Mamou to dispose of Oakdale in the opening game of the baseball playoffs as the Demons won 10-0 at home Monday night. Mamou now looks like it will travel to Many for a best-of-three series in the second round.
Head coach Dale Serie was pleased with his team’s performance coming into the season. “We did well,” he said. “We’re right at about 20 wins. We’ve been playing well as of late. Seven out of our last eight games we won. We had a tough district. Overall we’re young. We have three seniors, two start. So we got a ton of experience we gained this year and a ton of experience coming back.”
Starting on the mound against Oakdale was junior Li’l Paul Williams. “He’s come on as of late,” his coach said. “He’s emerged as one of our top guys a little bit later in the season.”
Serie knew what to expect from his Warrior opponents. “I know Brent McKoy does a good job with them,” he said before the game. “Typically they’re pretty good. They’ll swing the bats real well. It’s gonna be a dogfight. We’re expecting to be in a war.”
The war that Serie was expecting turned rather one sided. The pitching woes that plagued the Warriors to end the season continued against Mamou. Hunter Longino got the start on the mound and labored in the first inning walking four batters including the first three in the Demon lineup. The defense behind him cost him two runs as a dropped pop up at shortstop allowed two runs to come across the plate for Mamou. 
It then took three Oakdale pitchers to pitch into and out of the second inning. Longino was pulled from the game after facing the first batter in the inning. Terrence Holmes came in and walked two of the four batters he faced. Nick Doyle then came in to pitch and settled things down, but the damage was done as Mamou plated seven runs in the inning.
“That inning was big,” said Serie about the second inning. “We executed some bunts. We executed some things we needed to do. We wanted to test their corner guys. Wanted to test their bunt defense. We were just successful putting some timely hits together, and it worked out in our favor.”
On the other side of the coin, Williams struck out five Warriors in his five innings of work. He walked one, hit a batter, and only allowed one hit that came in the fourth inning. “He was good,” said Serie. “He was real crisp. His fastball was working real good. He painted the corners real good. He kept in knee high just like we worked. He was on today.” 
“Many’s in the same district with Oakdale,” said Serie about Mamou’s possible next opponent. “Oakdale’s beat them once, so it gives us a little confidence going in. And we played some teams Many played, so I think it’ll be a great series.”

Oakdale's baseball comes to an end in Mamou

Oakdale baseball comes to an end in Mamou 
It took five innings for Oakdale’s baseball season to come to an end Monday night as the Warriors lost 10-0 to Mamou.
 The Oakdale coaching staff thought they would have to travel to Springfield for the first game in the playoffs, but Oakdale got a bump in the power points when the final rankings came out sending them instead to Mamou. “We know these guys, we know the coaches,” head coach Brent Mckoy said. “Talking to people in their district and ours and knowing these guys player for player, we think it’s a good match. Whereas going way north somewhere we don’t know anybody, it’s kinda hard to kinda prepare.” 
Hunter Longino got the start on the mound. “Hunter’s our guy,” McKoy said. “We’re figuring with him throwing it gives us a chance to beat pretty much anybody. It gives us a shot. He’s throwing the ball well, and the last few outings he’s been healthy and good.” 
Oakdale entered the playoffs after losing at Rosepine 4-3 and losing at Bunkie 11-2 in the final week of the season. The last game was rained out in Iowa. “We hit the ball decent, coulda hit a little better I thought in the Bunkie game,” said Mckoy. “Our defense has been playing really well the last couple games. We just come up short. We threw four or five guys in that game. Pitching wise we weren’t at our best in that last one, but I think our bats are where we want them to be going into the playoffs.”
The pitching woes continued for Oakdale against Mamou. Longino labored in the first inning walking four batters including the first three in the Demon lineup. The defense behind him cost him two runs as a dropped pop up at shortstop allowed two runs to come across the plate for Mamou. 
It then took three Oakdale pitchers to pitch into and out of the second inning. Longino was pulled from the game after facing the first batter in the inning. Terrence Holmes came in and walked two of the four batters he faced. Nick Doyle then came in to pitch and settled things down, but the damage was done as Mamou plated seven runs in the inning. 
“We just didn’t pitch well tonight,” McKoy said. “Tonight Hunter just didn’t have it, and in relief we brought Terrence in relief, and he didn’t either. It took our third guy to finally settle in, and once that took place it was already nine runs down. So it’s hard to come back from that. And we settled down for three or four innings after that.”
The season may be over now for his Warriors, but McKoy turned upbeat when talking about his team next season. “We got some good young ball players,” he said. “The guy that started tonight, Hunter Longino, is a sophomore. It’s his first playoff start, so that may have had a little to do with it. We had two freshmen in the field tonight starting in their first playoff game, so we got a good young core of the team coming back. And we got pitching coming back too. They got the experience of playing in the playoffs to see what it’s about so hopefully we can build on that.”       

Oakdale's softball season comes to an end at Rosepine

 Oakdale’s softball season comes to an end at Rosepine
After winning its first round playoff game at French Settlement on four consecutive bunt attempts in the top of the ninth inning, Oakdale’s softball team tried the same approach against the number one seeded Rosepine team it had faced twice earlier this season. But the end result for Oakdale was a 7-0 loss on the road ending its season.
 “I was trying to do something to change it up”, head coach Alycia McDaniel said. “We’ve seen Rosepine two other times, so I bunted. And the people that I’ve asked to lay down the bunt they did, but when you’re playing a team at that caliber they have great bunt coverage.”
 “It was rough considering the fact that we lost; however, if it wasn’t as rough if you look at the positives”, she continued. “Ending our season we had played Rosepine twice previously because they were in our district. The first time we played them it was 14-1; the second time we played them it was 15-0. nobody thought that we would make that game last seven innings and give Rosepine, the number one team in the state, a run for their money.”
 McDaniel appreciates her team’s efforts getting to this point and the progression that her players have overcoming some early season adversity. “We came a long way,” she said. “When I took the team on, they had only won one game prior to that. So I look at it as a stepping stone. Last year we made the playoffs, this year we made regionals, next year I hope we can go to State. We had a little bit of setbacks with injuries and some unfortunate circumstances with other players that we lost, but overall I will say that I’m very proud my girls.”
 The coach acknowledged the contributions of her two seniors Darien Phillips and Skylar Chambley. “I’m very sad that I will be losing two outstanding,” she said. “I will have some big shoes that will need to be filled for both of them.”
 Also acknowledged for her hard work and progression was pitcher Breanna Hargrove. “I will commend Brie, my pitcher,” McDaniel said. “She did an outstanding job in our first playoff game. Last season she walked quite a few people and didn’t have the consistency that she had this year, but she worked hard. didn’t give up. She turned around a complete 180.”
 McDaniel went on to recognize the rest of her team’s efforts and progression. “A lot of them had attitudes and really didn’t want to be out there, and we molded and watched them grow into better players and people individually,” she said. “We had to go and take people from different positions that they were not used to and put them in places that we needed so that we could physically win as a team. And I’m very proud of the girls that adapted to the position that I’ve put them in and went full throttle with it.”
“I take the positive out of it instead of the negative,” she said. “We did try a lot of different things. I hope that Rosepine goes on and takes the State title home so that we can say we lost in the playoffs to the State champions.” 

Oakdale tennis qualifies 11 for State in Monroe

Oakdale tennis qualifies 11 for State in Monroe
 Oakdale tennis had 11 players qualify for State at the 2017 Tennis Regionals in Alexandria. That number is the most in the region.
 “So proud of the hard work and dedication of our team this season,” said coach Zealon Solomon. “Overall the boys finished regional team runner-up. We had a finalist is boys’ doubles, we had a semifinalist is boys’ doubles, we had a quarterfinalist is boys’ doubles. We had two quarterfinalists in girls’ doubles, and one quarterfinalist in boys’ singles.”
 Qualifying for State were Andrew Sao, Tyler Tichy, Kris Pelt, Daniel Rodriguez, Travian Dailey, Dawson Noblitt, Camryn Bullock, Anna Gill, Madeline Jarnagin, TayLor Willis, and Cheyenne Bertrand. Sao and Tichy were Boys Doubles Finalists. Pelt and Rodriguez were Boys Doubles Semifinalists. The Dailey and Noblitt ticket was Boys Doubles Quarterfinalists. Bullock was Boys Singles Quarterfinalist. On the girls’ side, Gill and Jarnagin were Girls Doubles Quarterfinalists, and Bertrand and Willis were Girls Doubles Quarterfinalists.
 Solomon also thanked all the parents and families such as Erin-Erik Noblitt, Paula Bullock, Kimberly Dailey, Wanda Millsaps, Amanda Watson, Gwen Monk Richmond, Shawn Rene' Pelt, Adam Ashlee Daughtry, Denay Bryant, Jessica Jarnagin Chamberlain and so, so many more for supporting the team this year and gave a special shoutout to the "maestro" Curry Darbonne.
 What impressed Solomon most on this year was his team overall going 19-2. “This was the youngest squad that we had in three years, and the kids definitely went above and beyond in terms of learning the game,” he said. “Their improvement match-by-match, and to win 19 out of 21 matches is impressive all in of itself. We beat 5-A schools, 4-A schools, 3-A schools, 2-A schools, 1-A schools, Class B, public, private. We won a tournament in Natchitoches. I mean we did a lot.” 

Softball gets a playoff win for the first time in over a decade

 It took over a decade to happen, but it happened again Saturday afternoon as the Oakdale Warrior softball team defeated French Settlement 3-2 in extra innings to win a playoff game.
 The Warriors went into the final week of the season as the number 17 seed. They needed to win both games against Glenmora and Iowa to secure a home playoff game, but they maintained their same position in the polls after splitting the pair of games and then went up against the number 16 seed Lady Lions.
 According to head coach Susan Covington, her team has come a long way since the floods to begin the school year. "Personally my own house flooded, and a couple of our players did too," she said before the game. "To experience that to be out of school for a whole entire month and then to come back. This is the only normal some of them see. We've come a long way since the beginning of the season, and they've finally been doing really well at the end of the season."
 "We're very compatible," said head Oakdale coach Alycia McDaniel about the team in the opposite dugout. "I think that we have a better pitching staff because their pitching is average. The only thing that I can say that they have against us is their speed. They're little bitty tiny fast girls, and they take full advantage if we allow them to get on base."
 Oakdale pitcher Breanna Hargrove neutralized that part of the Lions' game by only allowing five baserunners. She struck out 14 batters in her nine innings pitched including striking out the side in each of the first two innings. Her performance in the circle came a game after striking out 11 in a 2-0 win against Iowa last Wednesday. "Breanna has has been doing excellent," McDaniel said of her pitcher.
 The game was scoreless until the Bottom of the Fourth as a lead off walk came across the plate for French Settlement. Hargrove then allowed a single after getting her ninth strike out. The runner also came around to score on a sacrifice fly to center field for the 2-0 lead. Oakdale tied the game in the next half inning as Hargrove ripped a two-RBI double with the bases loaded.
 The score remained tied as each team was retired in order for the next two innings. All either team could manage was a single in the Bottom of the Seventh and in the Top of the Eighth. Hargrove got into a jam in the Bottom of the Eighth allowing a single and a walk, but her defense picked her up by recording the final two outs in the inning.
 Oakdale then scored the winning run in the Top of the Ninth on what had been the team's Achilles' Heel going down the stretch. "Our biggest down fall right now is that we're getting runners on, but we're not being able to push them in," McDaniel said before the game. "So we've left quite a few people on base."
 McKenzie Richmond led off the ninth with a bunt single. Ashton Gilley laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner. Marley Gilley then bunted for a single, and the runners advanced to second and third. Cheyenne Fruge got the game winning RBI on the fourth consecutive bunt attempt in the inning. 
 "I'm super proud of these girls," said McDaniel. "We came a long way, and we didn't play the ball that we're used to playing. We had to adjust, and we had to play some small ball and come through. We were paying attention on the bases and just really had heart this game." 

Baseball honors its seniors

 Oakdale baseball evened up its district record at 5-5 with a 15-0 win against Pickering Thursday on Senior Night. 
 "It went very good," head coach Brent McKoy said. "I mean the last time we played Pickering, we went on a four game winning streak. We started playing good, and here again we played really good today. It was a good way to go out for the seniors."
 Centerfielder Terrance Holmes, according to McKoy, is a very good athlete and baseball player. "He's got all the tools to play at any level," he said.
 "(Senior night) means a lot because a lot of people look up ahead of their years and look for this day," Holmes said. He also said a home playoff game would give his team confidence. "I think it would be very good," he said. "We got rough patches, but when we play as a team we're hard to beat."
 Taylor LaCombe, who is hitting over .500 on the season, starts at second base and left field. "He had a really great season this year considering he plays multiple positions," McKoy said. "We ask him to play a lot of places."
 "Senior night is pretty big," LaCombe said. "You get a chance to congratulate the seniors for playing so long, and it's a big night for me to be playing with these guys. And a home playoff game in my last season would be pretty big and just be fun playing on my home field."
 Also hitting above .500 with five home runs is number five Nick Doyle who plays shortstop, catches, and pitches. "(Senior night) means a lot having been playing ball my whole life and knowing it's our last game here in the regular season," he said. "It just means a lot to me trying to lead the team to the best of our ability. We really need to finish strong the season. If we can come out with three wins, that would be big time for the playoffs."
 John Ross Williams is the fourth senior and plays first base. "He's doing a great job there," McKoy said. "I don't even know if he's made an error this year at first base."
 "Senior night is pretty big," Williams said. He also admitted how big a home playoff game would be for him and the rest of his team. "It really would," he said. "It's been tough, and we have a really hard schedule. So we've been facing a lot tougher opponents. I think it'll really show in the playoffs."
 Going down the stretch, McKoy's team has three games left on the season at Rosepine, Bunkie, and Iowa. He calls the game at Iowa Saturday "a tune up game" before the playoffs. "Really that's gonna make or break us," he said. "If we can win those three, we can sneak in to get a home playoff game" 

Softball on the outside looking in for a home playoff game

 With their last district game behind them, the Oakdale softball players look for a win in either the two final games of the season against Glenmora and Iowa to secure a home playoff game. 
 "We're making some good fielding like catches and throws, and Brie (Hargrove)'s pitching better," said assistent coach Ben Jones. "But we just not making it over the hump of that next tier of teams."
 Head coach Alycia McDaniel agreed and admitted her team was "on a good roll" after a 7-2 win against Pickering on March 21. Her Warriors lost the next game at Rosepine 15-0 but came back and dominated Bunkie 14-1. The team then competed in the Rapides Tournament, which both coaches said hurt their team more than helped.
 In the first game of the tournament on April 1, the Warriors beat Northwood-Lena 13-1. "We hit the ball good, but that was because they had a really slow pitcher," Jones said. "And that ended up hurting us the next game."
 "I didn't know the caliber of Northwood-Lena, but their pitcher was the slowest little pitcher I've ever seen," McDaniel said. "It took a good week and a half for (my girls) to adjust back to a fast pitcher."
 The next game up in the tournament was against Avoyelles Charter, and Oakdale fell victim to leaving too many runners on  base as they lost 3-1. "Their pitcher was a lot like Bunkie's pitcher," McDaniel said. "We should have racked them. Everytime we'd get runners on base, we could not get anybody to get them in. We tried bunting and other different scenarios. One game our bunts would be good, the next game we can't lay down a bunt to save our life."
  Oakdale then lost on Senior Night to Rapides 7-2 and lost the last district game 6-2 at Many, who is the number one team in the state. According to Jones his team was down 3-0 after a three-run homerun but scored two runs in the next half-inning, but the momentum died on a base running error to end the inning and the rally. 
 "I just wish that some of our bigger batters that we're used to coming through all the time would come through," said McDaniel after the loss at Many. "If we would have consistency in our bats, that would be key. We'd be sitting with a home playoff game right now instead of at number 17."
 "I honestly believe this, and not just because Dorien (Phillips)'s a senior, but this group of girls right here have what it takes to go far," McDaniel continued. "And for me coming from Pine (Prairie) to Oakdale and seeing the improvement that I've made, and it's not that I did it. I mean the girls had to have wanted it, but I feel like they deserve to go further than the first round. But they have to want it."

Tar Heels find redemption in The Valley of the Sun

Tar Heels find redemption in The Valley of the Sun
 The championship game of the NCAA Tournament in Glendale had a familiar feel to the one last year as the Tar Heels of North Carolina were paired up against a team from a Catholic university. UNC this time around found redemption in the Valley of the Sun as they cut down the nets this year beating Gonzaga 71-65 after losing the championship to Villanova at the buzzer last year in Houston.
 Gonzaga led by three at the half at 35-32. The Tar Heels then outscored the Bulldogs 39-30 in the second half to head coach Roy Williams his third national championship. Joel Berry, II, paved the way for his team with 22-points and six assists for the win.
 North Carolina trailed in three point percentage going four-for-27 compared to eight-of-19 and trailed in free throws making 15-of-26 baskets from the foul line to 17-of-26 from Gonzaga. But the team from Chapel Hill led in scoring percentage outshooting the kids from Spokane 36-percent to 34-percent. 
 "You know, on game night, kids gotta play. That's the bottom line," Williams told the Associated Press before the game. "I've never won a game from the bench. I may have lost some, but I know I've never won one. We've gotta go out and play and do the best we can."
 Williams' team is led by junior forward Justin Jackson, who averaged 18.3 points per game in his 39 games played on the season going into the game Monday. The 6-8/210-pound native of Tomball, Texas, is shooting at a 44.7 percent clip from the field and 38.2 percent from beyond the arc. He is also the owner of a 74.6 shooting percentage from the free throw line.   
 Berry was behind Jackson and averages 14.5 points per game. He is shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 38.7 percent in three-pointers. From the free throw line, he is 102-for-129 at 79.1 percent. 
 The Tar Heels won the ACC championship but lost to in-state rival Duke in the conference tournament championship game. They then earned the number one seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament. After stomping on Texas Southern 103-64 in the First Round, they beat a hungry Arkansas Razorback team from the SEC 72-65 to earn a date in the Sweet 16 against Butler. 
 North Carolina won that game 92-80 and then went on a 12-0 run at the end of the game to finish off Kentucky's season 75-73 in the Elite-8. Saturday night in Glendale, they clipped Oregon's wings 77-76. ''If it wasn't for Kennedy Meeks, we wouldn't have been in the basketball game,'' Williams told the AP.
 On the other end of the court, was the Gonzaga Bulldogs who reached the Final Four for the first time in school history. The Bulldogs went 37-1 on the season and went 17-1 in the West Coast Conference. They breezed past the 16-2 Gales of St. Mary's in the conference to win the championship. "To be playing in the last game of the year is just crazy cool," said coach Mark Few to the AP.
 Big man on campus is Nigel Williams-Goss with his 16.9 points per game. He was also rebounding at 5.9 per game and had 4.7 assists per game. He was shooting 49.3 in field goal percentage. 
 "I think the respect thing has to go out the window," he told the AP before the championship game. You have 37 wins in a college season, I mean that's just unbelievable. And to be playing the last
game of the season, we have a chance to play for it all. And we're here to win it."
 Gonzaga as top seed in the West Region outlasted South Carolina 77-73 Saturday in the Final Four. Williams-Goss in that game had 23-points. The Bulldogs got to the desert by taking care of fellow Jesuit school and 11th seed Xavier 83-59 in the Elite-8 and sent West Virginia back to the mountain roads in the Sweet 16 by winning 81-58.
 "I've had some really, really tough teams," Few told the AP. I've had some really close teams. I've had some teams that have been crazy efficient on the offensive end and ones that have been pretty darned good on the defensive end that probably didn't get credit for it," Few said. "These guys are all of that. All of it."

The Marks Post: Ignatian Spirituality at the old ballgame

 This is my first column that I call "The Marks Post." It is a play on my last name and also a tribute, if you will, to Night Court actress Markie Post. In these columns I will offer my insights on current events, pop culture, among a variety of other topics. I might even throw in an advice column or two.
 Before I get too ahead of myself, I want to say how honored I am to become associate editor of The Gazette. I started writing for the paper as a sports reporter two-and-a-half years ago. Looking back my writing was choppy back then. For instance I had an article saying the OC Vikings were worthy of Valhala and an article that led off with a physics lesson.
 Raymond Partsch was then brought in a year later as managing editor and used what he calls "teaching moments" to mold me into the writer I am today. I want to thank him and the rest of the staff for supporting me along the way and for making me sports editor of the Oakdale Journal.
 I also want to thank Randy Deshotel for supporting me in these writing endeavors as I'm still employed at the clerk's office. 
 Now that the obligatories are out of the way, I can get into what I want to talk about in my first column. I got back last Sunday from my sixth retreat at Our Lady of the Oaks in Grand Coteau. I could write column upon column on Ignatian spirituality, the Spiritual Exercises, and the bread pudding, but I want to share an experience from a couple retreats ago because it's a good segue to the rest of this column.
 The retreats end with a talk or talks (depending on the spiritual director) on the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises dealing with the Resurrection, and Fr. Paul Patin, SJ, closed out the retreat in 2014 with a talk that focused on four words mentioned in each of the Synoptic Gospels... "He has been raised."
 I meditated on those words on the way back home that Sunday and came to the following conclusion. When the Cubs lose more games than they win, instead of kicking, screaming, amd wanting to pull my hair out I need to use what I learned at the retreat and hope in the Resurrection because "He has been raised."
 Whether you have been knowing me for a day or a decade, you know that I'm an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs. That season in 2014 was the only one with Ricky Renteria as manager, and they did in fact lose more games than they won. They hired Joe Madden away from Tampa Bay in the offseason and went on the beat arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals in the divisional series to reach the 2015 NLCS. They then got swept by the Mets, but then something happened a season later that hasn't happened since 1908.
 The Cubs won the World Series beating the Cleveland Indians four games to three, but I'll admit they should not have won. Indian Rajai Davis hit a two-run homer in the Bottom of the Eighth to tie the game. The curse appeared to rear its ugly head once again. It was like the black cat running on the field again in 1969 and like Steve Bartman making the catch in 2003, just to name a couple times the curse came to haunt the team. 
 But then after the heavens opened causing a rain delay before the Top of the Tenth, eventual World Series MVP Ben Zobrist doubled in Miguel Montero for the lead and jumped high in the air over the second base bag. Kris Bryant fielded a ground ball and threw it over to Rizzo at first to retire the side in the bottom of the inning. 
 After they won the game and the Series, I jumped as high as Zobrist did the half-inning before, or at least I thought I did. I then ran around the snack bar and picked up Guy Perrodin in celebration. After I left Guy's, I went home and started watching post game coverage. I had to force myself to go to bed at 1:00 AM because I had to go to work in the morning. I don't think I was too effective that day at work, but it was well worth it.
 The club this season returns a roster littered with much of its young nucleus in tact from last year. Returning to the corner of Clark and Addison are Zobrist, Rizzo, and Bryant. Also returning are names such as Addison Russell and Javier Baez. The most important name returning is utility player Kyle Schwarber, who got hurt in the opening series last year in Cincinnati. He missed the entire season but rejoined the team in Cleveland for Game 1 of The Fall Classic. 
 They look poised for another World Series run this season even though they are starting off 0-1 after losing on the road against the Cardinals on Opening Night last Sunday. But it was only one game out of 162, and according to Ernest Lawrence Thayer, "A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast."

Softball is putting all the pieces together for a winning product on the field

The softball program at Oakdale is turning a corner and putting all the pieces together for a winning product on the field. This recipe has yielded another notch under the win column overall and in district play as the Warriors again defeated Pickering. This time around the score was 7-2 on the road. 
"I think they've improved greatly defensively, and then Brianna (Hargrave)'s improving week by week," said assistant coach Ben Jones. "The more she's pitching, the better she's getting. Kassie Tichy is our second baseman and our other pitcher. She made two leaping almost diving catches between second base and the outfield, and then our shortstop Marley Gilley made a bunch of plays. So our middle infield is getting better." 
"They're bunting the ball better and hitting the ball better," Jones added. "It seemed like everything kinda came together tonight... the hits, the bunts, the fielding, the pitching." 
With their team up 4-0 in the Top of the Fourth, Lauren Holmes and Skyla Chamblee reached base before third place hitter Hargrove launched a home run over the center field wall on a 3-2 count. 
The win came on the heels of a 1-2 showing at the Sulphur Tournament. In the first game of the tournament, Oakdale was leading 4-0 over Westgate until six Warrior errors allowed the score to be tied. The international tie breaker then went into effect where each team began the next half inning with a runner on second base. Oakdale pushed the run across, and Hargrove struck out the last two Westgate batters to get the 5-4 win. "They were pumped up about that," said Jones. 
The next day was less heroic as Jones' team lost both games to Buckeye 4-1 and Sacred Heart of Ville Platte 4-0. According to the assistant coach, the Buckeye game turned as the umpires reversed a home run call off the bat of Mckenzie Richmond. "The ball hit the catcher's knee pad and rolled forward," Jones said. "The umpire said it was a foul ball. Well I was trying to argue that Darien Phillips shouldn't have to go back to first because it wasn't a foul ball that the ball hit the catcher's knee pad and that's what made it ricochet. So they let the pitcher pitch. Mack hits a homerun over left centerfield, and they said no home run because we had a timeout." 
Jones sees positive signs on the horizon as his team nears the final nine games of the regular season. "It's like the scores are starting to get lower and lower," he said. "We're not giving up as much. We're getting better at defense, and we're starting to hit the ball. I feel like we're just gradually getting better."