By BRET H. MCCORMICK
Buckeye senior pitcher and Southeastern Louisiana softball signee Olivia Henry is putting together a strong season as she looks to guide the Lady Panthers to a third straight state championship.
Henry tossed her third no-hitter of the season, striking out 13 batters and walking just one, in a 7-0 victory over Marksville last Wednesday as Buckeye clinched an undefeated District 2-3A championship.
Following a 4-0 loss to Calvary Baptist on Saturday, in which she gave up just four hits and struck out 10, Henry has a 10-4 record with one save and an ERA of 1.10 with 124 strikeouts in 82 ⅔ innings pitched.
Henry is also having a standout season at the plate with a .500 batting average, seven doubles, two triples and 16 RBIs. Fellow senior pitcher and right fielder Adysen Mitchell, who has a nine-game hitting streak, is batting .431 with 11 doubles, two triples, one home run and a team-high 26 RBIs. Freshman shortstop Rosalee Richey leads the Lady Panthers with three homers.
Buckeye (13-6) has seven games remaining in the regular season, including a game at Menard on March 25 and a showdown at home against Tioga on April 1, as the Lady Panthers look to hold onto the top power rating and seed in the Division II Select playoffs.
PINEVILLE’S OATES DISPLAYS POWER: The Pineville baseball program is in the midst of a major rebuild after advancing to the state semifinals last year, but one player who hasn’t slowed down is junior catcher Wes Oates.
After batting .275 with three home runs and 23 RBIs last season, the left-handed hitting catcher has seen his production increase greatly this season.
Although the Rebels have lost 14 of their first 15 games, Oates has increased his batting average by almost 100 points to .367 while hitting five home runs and driving in 18 runs. Oates has two multi-homer games, against Kinder on Feb. 19 and against Winnfield last Wednesday.
With Pineville trailing 9-7 and the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth inning, Winnfield intentionally walked Oates to bring home a run and put the tying run at third base after Oates hit a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run homer in the third. The Rebels were unable to bring in the tying run and left the runners stranded in a 9-8 loss.
Oates finished the game 2-for-2 with two homers, six RBIs and two walks. Nine of Oates’ 18 hits on the season have gone for extra bases.
ASH’S LINDSEY OUTRACES BUNKIE’S JOHNSON: Alexandria Senior High running back JT Lindsey and Bunkie receiver/cornerback Kyle Johnson, the top two football prospects in Central Louisiana’s Class of 2025 and perhaps the two fastest players in the area, faced off against each other at ASH’s Trojan Relays on Thursday.
Lindsey pulled away down the backstretch to finish first in the 200 meters in 22.44 seconds, while Johnson, who led coming out of the turn, finished second in 22.70 seconds.
Lindsey ran a leg on all three of ASH’s sprint relays, while Johnson finished third in the 100 meters and anchored Bunkie’s 400- and 800-meter relay teams, so the 200 meters was the only race the two sprinters squared off head to head.
The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Lindsey is rated as a four-star football prospect by the recruiting website On3.com, which ranks him as the No. 5 player in Louisiana, No. 11 running back nationally and No. 143 overall prospect in the country.
Lindsey currently claims 14 scholarship offers, including Power-4 programs Cal, Houston, Mississippi State, Pitt and Vanderbilt. He recently visited LSU for its Junior Day and has official visits planned for Pitt and Houston in June.
The 5-11, 160-pound Johnson is rated as a three-star prospect by Rivals.com and also claims 14 scholarship offers, including Power-4 programs Baylor, Houston, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. Johnson also recently visited LSU for its Junior Day.
ASH SWEEPS TROJAN RELAYS: ASH claimed both team titles at the Trojan Relays with the Lady Trojans scoring 234 points, more than three times as many as runner-up Menard (69 points). The Trojans were in a much closer battle, compiling 188.5 points to defeat runner-up Tioga by 16.5 points.
The meet saw nine victories classified as “elite performances” by the U.S. MileSplit standard.
Menard junior A’Shyria Burns turned in four first-place finishes and three elite performances. Burns won the girls 100 (12.20), 100 hurdles (14.58), triple jump (38-0) and long jump (17-5.5). Her teammate, junior Cami Harrison, won the pole vault by clearing a height of 10-6.
Bunkie junior Kaylen Rabalais won the girls javelin with a throw of 133-10, and ASH’s 400-meter relay team finished first in 47.80.
ASH’s boys 400 and 800 relay teams turned in elite performances with times of 42.12 and 1:28.95, while ASH junior Marquis Butler won the triple jump with a leap of 45-2.
ASH senior Hunter Rivet broke his own school record in the discus with a throw of 169-8, while Bunkie senior Huxley Pias set a personal record with a javelin throw of 181-4.
The top four finishers in the boys 100 meters were separated by just three-hundredths of a second. ASH senior Jaylin Johnson (11.33) edged out his younger brother, junior Jordyn Johnson (11.34), and Grant junior TJ Young (11.36) in a photo finish in the first heat, while Bunkie’s Johnson (11.35) won the third heat but finished third overall.