Vidalia advances to state title round against Eastbank
Published 12:12 am Tuesday, July 19, 2016
The Vidalia 12-and-under All-Stars staved off elimination for the second-straight game.
Charged by a stellar pitching performance from Addison Jackson and some clutch hitting, the all-stars rolled past Bossier 15-1 to advance to the championship round of the Little League Louisiana State Tournament.
“This is awesome,” Vidalia coach Randi Poole said. “I knew they could come back and do it, and our bats have been working, our defense has been great, our pitching has been good. I couldn’t ask for a better team right now.”
Jackson allowed just four hits and struck out 10 Bossier hitters in her six strong innings.
The complete game effort was Vidalia’s second straight as Rebecca Cowan tossed a shutout in her team’s 17-0 win over Blanchard Sunday night.
“We’ve got plenty of pitching,” Poole said. “(Jackson) did an awesome job. She had a lot of full counts on most of them, but she came out of it strong.”
Bossier managed to record back-to-back hits in the fourth inning to net its lone run, but Jackson wouldn’t allow any other runner into scoring position the rest of the game.
“I just was focusing on doing my best,” Jackson said. “I really tried hard and was working on mechanics.”
Vidalia scored at least one run in each of the six frames, capped off by a six-run sixth inning.
Anna Poole and Madison Green each had three hits for Vidalia and combined to drive in four runs. Graycie Wiley chipped in with a run-scoring triple in the second.
“We were solid with batting,” Poole said. “You just couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
The all-stars will play Eastbank in the championship round, which beat Vidalia Saturday 7-3 in each team’s tournament opener. The all-stars will have to beat Eastbank twice to advance.
“It’s really amazing, I didn’t think we would get this far,” Jackson said. “We just have to win and play our best.”
The first game is slated for a 6 p.m. start today.
“We have to stay positive, and they have to play how they know how to play,” Poole said.