DeQuincy falls in 12 innings in Non-Select Division IV State Championship

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - After a hectic couple of days for the DeQuincy Tigers that saw their Semi-Final game, which they won, get pushed from Tuesday at 5:00 to Wednesday night at 9:45, the Tigers faced off against the Oak Grove Tigers in the Non-Select Division IV State Championship Friday afternoon, and Friday’s State Championship was arguably crazier than what DeQuincy had to deal with in the Semi-Finals.

DeQuincy took the lead in the top of the first thanks to a base hit off the bat of Andrew Dowden, as they took an early 1-0 lead, but that’s when things went off the rails a bit.

Oak Grove proceeded to score nine unanswered runs to take a 9-1 lead going into the sixth inning, putting DeQuincy on the ropes with just six outs remaining, but the Tigers of DeQuincy responded.

DeQuincy RBIs from Jase Puryear, Reese Ashworth, and Samuel Maddox in the sixth inning cut the lead from 9-1 to 9-6, but there was still work left to be done as the game approached the seventh inning.

DeQuincy was able to hold Oak Grove off the board in the bottom half of the sixth, meaning they would need three runs to tie it, and four to take the lead in the game’s final inning.

With runners on, DeQuincy was down to their final out, still down 9-6, but Keagan Carter gave the Tigers some hope, a bloop single to left field brought in Hayz Hext, cutting the Oak Grove Tigers’ lead to 9-7. Rahley Royer was the next batter up, and his single to right field moved Carter over to second, putting two runners on for Jase Puryear who got a base hit making it a 9-8 game in the bottom of the seventh, with two away.

In steps Reese Ashworth, and with two strikes, and two outs, Ashworth smacked one off the wall in left-center field bringing in two runners, and after trailing 9-1 in the sixth inning, and 9-6 with two outs in the seventh, the DeQuincy Tigers marched all the way back and took a 10-9 lead going into the bottom half of the seventh, where DeQuincy would be three outs away from their first State Championship in program history.

Unfortunately for the DeQuincy Tigers, the Oak Grove Tigers tied it up in the bottom of the seventh as Luke Simmons beat the tag at home plate after DeQuincy threw the ball to second on an Oak Grove steal, and with it the two teams of Tigers were heading to extra innings with a State Championship on the line.

For four innings the two were at a standstill, but in the bottom of the 12th, it was Oak Grove’s Tanner Duff who singled to centerfield bringing in Spencer Foster as Oak Grove walked it off in an absolute battle of a game between the two teams to win it 11-10 in 12 innings.

The win marks the sixth baseball State Championship in Oak Grove program history, and the third consecutive dating back to 2021.

“They never gave up, they never stopped battling, that’s just who they are, they have no quit in them, we were 90 feet from getting beat by 10, and they had a refuse to lose attitude, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. They fought for 12 innings, we came back from being down by nine runs, and we had to drive back and forth for three days to play our first game, I mean I couldn’t be more proud of how our team competed and played,” said DeQuincy head coach Brady Carlson following the game.

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