Loreauville’s Cameron Trahan (12) comes home to score in the fifth inning of the Tiger’s 12-5 win over Welsh in the Class 2A State Championship Saturday. Welsh catcher Austyn Benoit (2) waits on the throw to the plate.

Loreauville High baseball’s run to the Class 2A State Championship was boosted by what happened in two innings. One in the state semifinals against Kinder and the other in the title game against Welsh.

In Friday’s semifinal, Loreauville held a moderately comfortable 7-2 lead after three innings  before erupting for four runs in the fourth inning which gave the Tigers a 11-2 lead.

Kinder would rally back and cut the lead for three runs at 11-8 but LHS was able to hold on for the win to go the finals the next day.

In Friday’s finals, Loreauville trailed 5-0 after four innings but scored two runs in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-2, then took the lead for good with a huge seven run outburst in the sixth inning which put the Tigers on top 9-5 as LHS added three more insurance runs in the top of the seventh for the final margin.

Two innings which added up to 11 runs for the Tigers and helped put the team over the top for its first state baseball championship.

 

Semifinals against Kinder

Playing the top seed Yellow Jackets, Loreauville scored early and often and built a comfortable lead. But according to LHS coach Rob Segura, no lead is ever safe.

“We knew that Kinder was going to score some runs,” said the LHS skipper. “That’s a really good team and they’re the top seed for a reason.”

The fourth inning started simple enough with a walk to Mike Latulas. Shajuan Nora followed with the first out of the inning and Rhette Viator came after him and singled which scored Latulas.

Dale Sonnier reached on an error putting two on for Jobe Hebert, who put a Trent Johnson pitch over the left field wall for a three-run homer and an 11-2 lead for the Tigers.

“He threw me a fastball, middle in, and I just hit it,” said Hebert.

The homer capped off a four inning, 11 run outburst for Loreauville, who would end up needing just about all of them for the semifinal win.

“Even when they got close, all I told them was don’t look at the scoreboard, just go out and play and get the final out. Then we’ll see what the final score is,” said Segura.

 

Finals against Welsh

Saturday afternoon, as hot as Loreauville was at the plate against Kinder on Friday was as cold as the bats were against Welsh in the championship game.

Until the fifth inning, all LHS could muster was two hits against WHS starter Sam Hoffpauir, who kept the Tigers lineup off-balance.

But when Loreauville scored twice in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-2, you could see the momentum start to turn from the Greyhounds to the Tigers.

“Even down five runs we didn’t lose faith, we still thought we could win,” Nora said. “Once we got those runs our energy just went up.”

Even Segura knew how important those first two runs were to his Tigers.

“Getting that first run is so crucial in pressure situations,” Segura said. “I think after that we exhaled and then we do what we do after that.”

All Loreauville does is bash the ball and in the top of the sixth, the Tigers turned on the offensive juice.

Again it started with a simple single, this time from Hebert, and it just snowballed from there.

By the time Jordy Broussard made the final out, Loreauville scored seven runs on five hits and watched as Welsh defensively collapsed with three errors.

The Tigers’ sent 11 men to the plate in the sixth inning and surprisingly, only had four singles and one double in the frame.

After Hebert’s hit, Broussard singled, Peyton Crum reached on an error, the Zy Alexander advanced the runners with a sacrifice, Caleb Washington singled, Latulas walked, Nora reached on an error, Viator singled, Dale Sonnier hit a fly ball to right field that the Welsh player caught and dropped for an error, Hebert was back up again and doubled and Broussard finally brought the inning to an end with the final out.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that,” said Segura. 

“These kids are just resilient. They just find a way.”

And even though the Tigers added three more insurance runs in the seventh, the damage to the Greyhounds’ psyche was just too much after leading for most of the game but losing the lead and eventually the game in a matter of 15 minutes.

Two innings that led to 11 runs and ultimately lead to Loreauville baseball holding the state championship trophy.

“It was definitely an experience,“ Segura said. “I never talked to them about getting here for the first time, these guys just wanted to win.”