By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
The historical record for the local American Legion baseball program is not exactly the most impressive thing you’ll ever run across.
If you run across them.
To be honest, that’s probably just better for all concerned. It’s not exactly a glowing resume.
So before you can begin to understand what the Bossier Phillies have accomplished this summer, let’s take a quick trip down the long and sordid historical trail.
From 1950 to 2007, no Fourth District (Northwest Louisiana) team won the American Legion state championship. That’s 57 – fifty-seven – years. You’d think by accident some team would have lucked out over the course of six decades.
The Bossier Cyclones broke that streak in 2007 and made it to the Mid-South Regionals, but got their hats and gloves handed to them after two games in Paducah, Ky.
(In 1978, a local team did make it to the regionals, but that’s because the host city is a guaranteed a spot in the eight-team field and didn’t have to qualify on the state level.)
American Legion baseball has become such a non-entity that it basically doesn’t exist in this part of the state anymore. There were a couple of examples of local teams making a run to the state championship in the 2000s before getting disqualified on rules technicalities.
Don’t look now, but the Bossier Phillies are about to go where no local team has gone before. After winning the state tournament three weeks ago in Lafayette, then winning the Mid-South regionals in Washington, Mo., they will play in the American Legion World Series in Shelby, N.C. on Thursday at noon (CDT).
“I guess this in uncharted territory for this area,” said Phillies head coach Dane Peavy.
You think?
The Phillies will take on Midland, Mich., in the first of three games in pool play. They will also play on Saturday (6:30 p.m.) and Sunday (3 p.m.) in hopes of getting to the semifinals. The pool play games can be seen on ESPN+. Semis on Monday and the Tuesday finals will be on ESPNU.
“I’m really impressed with the way our guys have handled themselves over the last couple of weeks,” Peavy said. “They’ve had some adversity obviously earlier this year and in both tournaments. And we’ve kind of shook that off to really grind through and take hold and do some really good things.”
The Phillies are 23-4-1 overall and since there is no local league, played in weekend tournaments to get ready for the playoffs.
Peavy, who is the Benton head coach during the high school season, has six of his players on the year – Hudson Brignac, Kade Bryant, Tanner Webb, Jackson Jones, Hayden Millen and Griffin Sibley – to form the core of the team. But there are plenty of added pieces to help take the Phillies to this new level.
The additions include Tucker McCabe (Northwood), Brody Bower (Minden), Easton Sanders (Glenbrook), Ty Boozer (Pleasant Grove), Blayne McFerren (North DeSoto), Britain Pipes (Liberty-Eylau), Colton Smith (Parkway), Abel Thetford (Parkway) and Cade Moore (Carthage).
Only Brignac, McCabe, Bower, McFerren and Smith have graduated from high school. “I kind of thought we might be a year away,” Peavy said.
Mixing the team together has not been a problem, according to Peavy. “They’ve all played together in various age groups or various teams throughout the years,” he said. “So it really didn’t take just a whole lot to jell. They really play well with each other and they get along. We kind of keep the same mantra that I have in high school – be good humans and be good teammates; stand behind each other and stick together.”
Peavy says the team doesn’t really have an ace on the mound. “It’s just more of what we feel like is best for our guys,” he said. “I think everybody’s kind of carved out their own niche. You never know who it will be from day in to day out (to start) and the guys will know who’s going to be in relief.”
The Phillies, who reached the state championship game a year ago in Peavy’s first season, advanced out of the regionals this year the hard way – having to win two games in the finals. First, they beat Bryant (Ark.), who had earlier defeated the Phillies, then defeated unbeaten Tupelo, Miss., 5-3 in the championship game.
There might not have been a local team to reach this far before, but there is one person who knows all about it – Peavy. In 2016, he was the coach of the Texarkana team that made it to the Legion World Series – the only coach in Arkansas history to make it that far.
“To go back to Shelby eight years later after I initially thought I would probably never return, it’s a pretty surreal moment, to be honest,” he said.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com