By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
SHELBY, N.C. – Dane Peavy and his Bossier Phillies coaching staff knew what was required Monday night in the semifinals of the American Legion Baseball World Series – outproduce the explosive offense of League City (Texas).
It was a too-tall task. The Bossier bats weren’t too shabby, rapping 11 hits, but the Texans unfortunately lived up to the scouting report, lashing 14 hits and scoring in their last five frames to notch a 12-7 triumph that stopped the Phillies’ spectacular season one step short of the national championship game.
Recent Natchitoches Central graduate Brad Laird’s three-month stint with the Phillies finished with a highlight, a towering third-inning solo home run. Hudson Brignac, who returns as the starting second baseman for coach Chris Bertrand’s Northwestern Demons next spring, had a sensational 4-for-4 performance at the plate – including a homer and a double for Bossier. But League City was just too much.
When Bossier stranded two runners in scoring position in each of its first two innings, it was an ominous sign. The Phillies’ Kade Bryant, an incoming Demon signee, blanked League City in the bottom of the first, but not again.
“I felt our offensive output was going to be there, but one of our worries in our coaches’ meeting Sunday night was, ‘those guys can hit 1 through 9. It was going to take a Herculean effort but you’re going to have hit with those guys,” said Peavy. “All it took was one down inning (by Bossier) for those guys to get back up. We were just trying to play catch up all the time. We couldn’t get that zero inning – they just put up runs and runs, and we’re just trying to hold serve and see what we can get.”
After the Texans started the scoring with a second-inning run, Bossier (26-5) bombed away in the top of the third. Brignac led off by ripping a hanging curveball on the second pitch over the left-centerfield wall. With two outs, Laird reached down and powered the first pitch he saw way deep past centerfield for a 2-1 edge.
League City responded, and kept responding. The Texans put up two in the home half of the third to take the lead for good, the added four more in the fourth. Following the Phillies’ four-run fifth that closed it to 7-6, League City posted two in the fifth and answered a sixth-inning Bossier run with three more in the bottom half.
“I bet they probably barreled up 65 percent of the balls they hit,” said Peavy. “That’s impressive in amateur baseball. In a high school game you might find 40 percent barrels on a really good night. Kade Bryant is a really good pitcher, and I’ve never seen him hit like that.”
The Phillies kept battling back but couldn’t overcome the League City lead.
“We knew we were facing a tough team in Bossier City,” said four-decade veteran League City head coach Ronnie Oliver, whose team made its fourth straight World Series trip – a streak accomplished only once before in 100 years of Legion baseball’s national tournament. “We knew we’d have to play well to win.
“Kudos to my pitchers. Both of them did their jobs. And we hit the ball pretty well.”
In the Phillies’ four-run fifth inning, Abel Thetford singled in a run, Case Jorden tripled in two more and scored by a Bryant base hit. An inning later, Brignac lashed an RBI double that brought Bossier within 9-7, but the Texans cashed in on two uncharacteristic infield errors to pad the margin to five runs entering the Phillies’ last chance. For the third time in seven innings, the Bossier boys couldn’t plate anyone.
Early this morning, the Phillies boarded a bus to the Charlotte airport, most everyone hurrying back to begin the school year after the best season in local American Legion baseball history dating back to 1950 came to an abrupt end. Brignac and Bryant will be in class at NSU Wednesday morning. Laird will head to Hammond to begin his college days with former NSU coach Bobby Barbier at Southeastern.
“Everybody will get back to their regularly-scheduled lives. We’ve got to get back to the daily routine,” said Peavy. “I am looking forward to getting back to my family. It’s been a long two-week stretch. It’s been a really good, long two-week stretch.”
