The American Legion season came up a little bit short -- by about a month. We had a 16-4 record going into a three team round-robin tournament. With a pretty solid pitching staff, with good depth, we were ready for the big eight team double elimination tournaments. Only one problem -- after going 0-2 we won't be playing in those tournaments.
We really needed to play in those extremely competitive tournaments. We needed to fight our way through this, to find a way to win. But our hitting let us down, we never grasped the concept of staying on top of the baseball. We didn't do a good job of situational hitting, and we just didn't understand. We also didn't find a way to win. We didn't make big pitches, make routine plays when the game was on the line. We didn't get beat by better teams, we just gave two away.
We lost as a team, but the players lost individually. The seniors-to-be lost the most. They lost the opportunity to display their abilities. A high profile, eight team tournament draws college coaches from every school in the state. The coaches will stay for two days and watch 8 games, while evaluating the 2014 talent. They won't see our players and will wonder why. I will tell them it was a fluke, but in the end we didn't get it done.
I will never coach another American Legion game, and that is sad. I have enjoyed some great times coaching Legion baseball. Winning the 1st District championship in 1986 was my proudest moment. A public school from Algiers winning the (unofficial ) Catholic League championship. We were the first public school to win a 1st District championship in 34 years, and it has never happened again. Another fond memory was the summer of 2003. The Destrehan team that just lost the state championship to East Ascension, finished runner-up to Shaw after eliminating Jesuit in Ponchatoula. The state tournament was in Crowley, La., where we played for 7 days against quality teams. We played out of the losers bracket after losing the first day to the host. We played elimination games for 6 straight days winning them all until the final game -- a well played 2-1 loss to Gauthier Amedee.
The summer season is over but the preparation for the 2014 season is beginning. I am sure our players will rededicate themselves and work hard through the off season to prove that we are one of the best -- if not the best team in Louisiana.
