NewsBreak Original

Another school year has passed and Under The Radar NWLA has enjoyed covering and watching your teams thrive and get the much-deserved attention you get and deserve. if you didn’t know, we expanded our coverage by adding 2A this season. We also expanded our coverage from just three districts to a true Northwest Louisiana coverage area adding schools from 2A through C. Our true coverage area now is well and continues to be Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Claiborne, Lincoln, Winn, Jackson, Bienville, Natchitoches, Desoto, Red River, and Sabine. A total jump from 15 schools to 45 schools. I questioned my sanity at times and hope you were pleased with the coverage of your school this year. Enough about me.

Under the Radar NWLA not only likes to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments on the field of play but also in the classroom. Each sports season the LHSAA releases the All-Academic Composite Team and the All-Academic Class Team. The following are the All-Academic awards for the year..

Four local teams advanced to their respective semifinals and qualified for a trip to Sulphur to compete in the LHSAA Baseball Tournament which will be held May 9-13. The Logansport Tigers were the first to punch their ticket to Sulphur on Wednesday afternoon with a 9-6 win over No. 7 Delcambre. The Tigers had to come back three times to overcome the pesky Panthers. Delcambre took the early 1-0 lead in the top half of the first inning. Logansport answered with a 2-run bottom half. Delcambre added runs in the second and third inning to take the 4-2 lead. The Tigers scored 4 in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead in the game at 6-4. Delcambre chipped away at the Tigers’ lead with runs in the fifth and sixth to eventually tie at 6-6. Logansport had enough and put in three runs in the bottom of the sixth to secure their trip to Sulphur. Hayden Rolfe went 1 for 2 including a double and 3 RBIs. Tyler Binning batted 2 for 3. Jace Thompson went 1 for 3 with 2 RBIs and picked up the win pitching. The Tigers will have back-to-back years that have made it to Sulphur. The No. 2 Tigers will face No. 3 DeQuincy on Tuesday at 5 pm.

The LHSAA track and field season culminates every year in Ochsner’s LHSAA Outdoor Championships. The final chapter to determine the best of the best all plays out at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge.

The final step before the LHSAA State Track and Field Championships is the regional meets around the area. An athlete must place in the top three to qualify for the state meet. The fourth place can be used as an alternate for the region.

One last step to come before the state tournament in Sulphur. With Many and Winnfield eliminated, North West Louisiana will not have a representative from the Non-Select Division III. Calvary will be the sole representative in Division III as they swept Fisher. They will have to travel down to the Lake Charles area to face Notre Dame in a best-of-three series. Logansport will try to make back-to-back appearances in the state tournament as they will face Delcambre in the quarterfinals. Glenbrook in their first foray into the LHSAA playoffs is making a run to the state tourney in Division IV select. They will have to get by Riverside Academy in Minden first. Three remain in the Division V Nonselect playoffs. Unfortunately, one will eliminate the other as Converse and Weston will face each other in the quarterfinals. Defending state champion Choudrant continues to move along as they will face Hicks in the quarterfinals.

District 1-2A (Lakeside) (April 18) The Loyola Flyers and Lady Flyers claimed the district championships in Sibley at Lakeside High School. D’Arbonne Woods finished as district runner-up for the boys. The Green Oaks Lady Giants claimed the district runner-up on the girls.

Playoffs kicked off last week and we had some interesting first-round games. The top story in Simsboro. Doyline ace pitcher Noah Spears threw a 7-inning perfect game with 18 strikeouts as the Panther eliminated the Simsboro Tigers last week. The prize for the Panthers is a trip back to Lincoln Parish to face No. 1 Choudrant.

Well, we said it might happen last weekend, and lo and behold, it did. We have an all-Northwest Louisiana Division V Non-Select Semi-Finals. It took an 8-7 upset by No. 9 Choudrant over No. 1 Holden, a road win by the Florien Lady Black Cats, and the Converse Lady Wildcats and Quitman Lady Wolverines taking care of business at home. The four teams will square off at the Ochsner LHSAA Softball State Softball Tournament in Sulphur this coming weekend.

The last track meets before the district track meets and then regionals kicked in Week 6. Lots of great performances from around the area. Llewellyn Starks Invitational (Jonesboro) (April 11)

Nine teams remain after the second round. A couple of extra-inning games occurred in the second round as Winnfield needed 12 innings to pull the upset over South Beauregard. Their prize now is a matchup with defending state champion Doyle. Winnfield’s Josie Davidson pitching kept the Lady Tigers close with her 9 strikeouts. Choudrant also needed extra innings to knock off Harrisonburg on the road. The Lady Aggies got help from a top performance from Zoey Smith going 4 for 4 with a double and home run and gaining 4 RBIs. They now will have a home game against top-seeded Holden who eliminated Summerfield in the second round.

The first round of the LHSAA High School Softball Playoff was complete and only one local team was upset as Maurepas and Saline combined for 39 runs with Maurepas having the upper hand with 26. Loyola and Stanley had stellar performances in their first-round matchup. Both teams had multiple entries on the Hot 9 and each had a pitcher on the Top 3 Pitching Rotation. Loyola placed three in the Hot 9. Stanley placed two. Despite getting eliminated in the first round in extra innings, Zwolle’s Taylor Faust ended her season with a fantastic finish and the top performance of the week.

The LHSAA released the High School Baseball playoffs on Tuesday, April 18 afternoon. The playoffs will have a new feel this year with some rule changes. Division I - III will now have all rounds as Best of 3 series.

Bienville Parish Track Meet (April 4) (Ringgold) The annual Bienville Parish track meet was held in Ringgold over the week. The race was pushed up and the Gibsland-Coleman girls were unable to compete. The Gibsland-Coleman boys were crowned the parish champs with 102 points. Castor boys finished second. Arcadia girls claimed the girls team competition with Castor finishing second.

Quitman Relays 2023 (Quitman) (March 30) Multiple local teams headed down to Quitman to compete in the Quitman Relays. Fellow Jackson Parish school Jonesboro-Hodge took the boys competition. D’Arbonne Woods boys finished in second. Simsboro Lady Tigers track team took the team title with 74 points. Rayville was the girls runner-up.

The LHSAA high school softball playoffs brackets were released on Thursday afternoon. Twenty-seven local teams qualified for the playoffs from Division III to Division V. Of the 27 teams, five teams received first-round byes. The defending state champion Calvary Lady Cavaliers received the No. 1 seed in the Non-Select Division III bracket. Calvary will begin with a rest and wait for the winner of No. 16 Catholic-New Iberia and No. 17 Isidore Newman to play next week. Logansport Lady Tigers grabbed a No. 3 seed in the Non-Select Division IV playoffs. They moved up from a No. 5 seed last year. The Lady Tigers reached the quarterfinals in the ‘22 season. Cedar Creek also received a first-round bye in the Select Division IV playoffs with a No. 4 seed. Division V saw three local teams receive first-round byes. No. 2 Quitman, No. 3 Florien, and No. 4 Converse. Florien was the only team of the three bye teams that reached the state tournament last season.

The regular season is over and the last gasp for power ranking points was played out over the week. Playoff brackets will be released this week. We’ve got our last UTRNWLA High School softball report of the year, though. The last week is only three days so we combined Week 7 and Week 8 to get our four lists of top players.

The Simsboro Tigers had a good 4-0 week and the result was five players on the Hot 9 and Next 9 lists. The Tigers had an awesome performance week by Hayden Rabo who finished the week going 12 for 16 including two doubles and a home run. Rabo also had 9 RBIs for the week. Chris Harrell backed him up batting over .500 including three doubles and a home run. Both players made the Hot 9 list for the week. Simsboro added Hunter Stevens, Chris Stevens, and Mark Holloway to the Next 9 list to round out the five players to the list.

Mansfield dominated the track world in North West Louisiana in Week 3. The Wolverines and Lady Wolverines grabbed 13 medals in the 2023 Cane’s Many Tiger Invitational. They also garnered 11 spots on the UTRNWLA Boys and Girls Gold and Silver Teams. They placed almost half as many second-place teams as Many and Simsboro.

It was a Hot 9 week in Lincoln Parish as four of the nine slots were held by Lincoln Parish schools. Simsboro clamped down on two slots as Choudrant and Cedar Creek each grabbed a spot. Carlei Wheeler from Simsboro continues to make week-to-week appearances on the top players' report. Jacoya Lewis helped the Simsboro Tigers to a 3-1 week with her two triples home run and 8 RBIs. Cedar Creek’s Allie Furr had the most at-bats of any player for the week with 20 but included a triple, home run, and 6 RBIs. Choudrant’s Zoey Smith moved up from last week’s Next 9 to the Hot 9 list.