JOURNAL SPORTS
It’s said that all great journeys start with one small step. In this case, it’s a step onto a bus for a trip to Washington, Missouri, for the Bossier Phillies, hoping to win a second straight Mid-South Regional American Legion Baseball championship.
The Phillies roll eight hours north today, then complete the trip with another hour-plus jaunt Tuesday morning before a workout at Runsick Field at the Rotary Sports Complex in Washington, 50 miles west of St. Louis.
Their first game in the eight-team, double-elimination tourney is midday Wednesday for the Phillies, who swept through the Louisiana state tournament unbeaten early last month in New Orleans.
Bossier (19-2) will start regional play against the Mississippi state champs from Pontoc (13-6), who were a surprise winner out of the Magnolia State. Other state champs are from Oklahoma (Ada, with a 31-4 record), Missouri (Moberly), Arkansas (Mountain Home), Tennessee (Columbia) and Kansas (Pittsburg), and the host Washington team rounds out the field.
The tournament wraps up with the championship game Sunday. Weather does not appear to be a problem, said Bossier coach Dane Peavy, with moderate temperatures and minimal chance for rain.
The Phillies were unable to find any games to play since the state tournament final July 9 but staged a series of workouts in the last few days to try to get tuned up.
“I’m not too excited about a four-week layoff, but there’s nothing we could do about it,” said Peavy, noting that this year’s state tournament was a week earlier than last year. “We’ve probably had a half-dozen or so practices recently, a couple of sessions of live AB’s (at bats), and some stuff we felt good about.”
A mild setback was the departures of pitchers Thomas Allen and Jax Prewitt, and outfielder Kam Wrightner, who has football practice at Texarkana High.
“I don’t have any problem with those guys,” said Peavy. “I wish some (college) coaches would understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in most cases. You don’t get these opportunities, especially in amateur baseball. For some of our guys, it’s the end of their amateur baseball days and I told them to be sure to soak in all of this experience.”
Peavy’s confidence in his team is not shaken with the loss of the three players.
“We took 11 guys there last year, battled eight states and ended up coming out of there to the World Series. We’re a lot better off than last season. We’ll go compete and see what happens.”