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." 

Final Four is set

Final Four is set
 The Final Four which takes place Saturday at the Arizona Cardinals University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale will feature two teams from the Carolinas and two teams from the Pacific Northwest.
 The South Carolina Gamecocks of the SEC as the number seven seed won the East Region beating conference rival Florida 77-70 in Madison Square Garden after knocking off Baylor 70-50 in the Sweet 16. The Bears were the second best team in the Big XII behind Kansas and earned the three seed in the tournament.
 ''Anyone that's in sports dreams of moments like this,'' head coach Frank Martin told the Associated Press. ''It's not something that you start dreaming it the year you win 25 games. You dream it every single day.''
 Leading the way was Sindarius Thornwell with 26 points, seven rebounds, and one assist in his 36-minutes on the court. Three other Gamecocks reached double-digits in scoring as guard PJ Dozier scored 17, forward Chris Silva scored 13, and Malik Kotsar scored 12 from the forward position. 
 "The game was as close as expected until the final minute," according to the Associated Press. "There were 14 lead changes and 10 ties. The last lead change came on two free throws by Thornwell with 2:24 left that made it 65-63. Fourth-seeded Florida managed just three field goals over the final 3:55."
 The Gamecocks now will face WCC champion and top seed in the West Gonzaga Saturday. The Bulldogs cut down the nets in San Jose after an 83-59 win against the 11-seeded Xavier Muskateers, who beat second seed Arizona 73-71 in the Sweet 16. 
 "Just an incredible feeling of elation and satisfaction," head coach Mark Few said in an Associated Press article. "It's been a long, hard journey to get this program here."
 "Few and the Zags have won the West Coast Conference Tournament 16 times, been regulars in the NCAA Tournament since 1999, reached the Sweet 16 eight times," according to the same article. "The Final Four was the only missing piece to their resume."
 On the other side of the bracket, top seed Kansas faced third seed Oregon in Kansas City. It was the Ducks who emerged as champions of the Midwest Region. According to the Associated Press, "With swagger and verve and downright prolific shooting, the plucky team that everybody wanted to count out rolled to a 74-60 victory over the Jayhawks on Saturday night, earning the Ducks their first trip to the national semifinals in nearly 80 years."
 "You feel so good for so many people," said Ducks coach Dana Altman to the Associated Press. "It's a team effort. You feel good for a lot of people."
 The team from Chapel Hill was regular season champions of the ACC and garnered the top seed in the South Region. They went up against Butler in the Sweet 16 in Memphis and then outfoxed Kentucky 75-73 in an epic Elite 8 matchup. North Carolina held Kentucky's De'Aaron Fox to 13 points in the final game Sunday evening. The Tar Heels went on a 12-0 run to take control of the game in the final minutes, and Luke Maye scored with 0.3 seconds remaining sending his team to consecutive Final Fours.