By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
The Pineville softball team left no doubts. The Lady Rebels dominated the LHSAA state tournament in Sulphur Saturday and Sunday like few, if any, teams ever have and brought home the Select Division I state championship in resounding fashion.
The championship game was a 12-1 romp over fourth-seeded John Curtis, who had upset No. 1-ranked Mount Carmel 2-1 in the semifinals. Pineville’s semifinal win Saturday was 13-1 over third-seeded Archbishop Chapelle.
Add in the Lady Rebels’ other two playoff victories and Pineville (29-9) outscored its postseason opponents 52-5, run-ruling all four, scoring at least 12 runs each game. The Lady Rebels finished on a 12-game winning streak.
“It was about midseason when I realized we could really make a run with this team,” said coach Allison Frye, a former Pineville player 20 years ago. “We have a lot of young players. Our seniors are very passionate about it and worked very hard to get everyone to buy in, and it took a little while. I’ve been telling them, I don’t know how many times this season, ‘we’re right where we need to be,’ and today, if not a little bit before today, they believe me.”
“Going into today, we were confident,” said tournament Most Outstanding Player Ava Moore. “We were very confident. We knew that every person on this team, we all have each other’s backs, that if we make a mistake, the other 21 are there to back us up.”
On state softball’s biggest high school stage at North Frasch Softball Complex in Sulphur, in the final two games of the championship season, Pineville roared out of the gate.
Saturday, it was a 5-0 lead after two innings with an eight-run fourth inning putting the hammer down on Archbishop Chapelle – who had eliminated last year’s top-seeded Lady Rebels in a bitter quarterfinal loss in Pineville. This time, the Lady Rebs rapped 15 hits including two home runs each by Jadin Basco and Aniyah Jackson.
Sunday, Pineville also opened a 5-0 lead, after three innings, going up 2-0 in the first on a two-run double by Moore. Basco went deep with a three-run missile in the third inning.
The Sunday drubbing continued as the spread continued to grow, to 8-0, thanks in no small part to Briley Byrnes, whose sizzling-hot bat ignited outbursts both days. She went 7-for-7 with four doubles, scoring seven times, in the semis and finals.
Moore’s bat set off the championship celebration in the sixth inning. With the bases loaded, she drilled a shot to centerfield that was just too far for the Curtis outfielder to hold as it dropped over the fence to end the game on the run rule.
Almost overlooked due to the offensive fireworks by the Lady Rebs was the pitching of Chelsie Simpson and superior defense in both wins.
“I played for Pineville in the early 2000s and I never got this feeling. There’s so many girls that paved the way. They (this year’s players) don’t realize (yet) how big a deal this is to our community, to past players, who everyone who has bought into this program for a long time,” said Frye.
The triumph gave the Lady Rebels their eighth state crown. It was the first Pineville softball state title since capturing a third in a row in 1998, and Sunday marked the program’s first state championship game appearance since 2008.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com