Champions ... Again!
Photos by Rodrick Anderson The Choudrant Aggies celebrate at McMurry Park in Sulphur after clinching their second straight Class B state championship Friday afternoon.
Choudrant pitcher Landon Hennen (right) flips the ball to first for an easy out Friday afternoon. Hennen pitched a complete game for the victory.
Gavin Murphy receives the Outstanding Player award from LHSAA President Eddie Bonine in Sulphur Friday afternoon. Murphy had 3 hits and 3 RBIs.
If there were any questions about whether Choudrant was going to win Tony Antley’s last game as coach, they were answered Friday afternoon in Sulphur — emphatically.
The Aggies captured back-to-back Class B state championships by rolling over Converse 12-6 in a game of extreme momentum shifts that turned in favor of the Aggies during crunch time.
Choudrant (29-7) captured its sixth state championship in school history and the third in five years for Antley, who announced at the beginning of the playoffs he was retiring as coach after 32 years at the helm.
Year No. 32 may have been his best coaching job.
“I don’t know about the coach, but these players just kept fighting and fighting all year and they are such a special group,” Antley said. “They just play the game hard. They don’t ever quit and that can take you a long way.”
With a bevy of unproven players stepping into starting roles this season and his two top pitchers departed after winning the title a year ago, Antley’s boys survived an early roller-coaster ride while finding their sea legs.
With two weeks to go in the regular season, the Aggies began to put things together. A loss to district rival Quitman — which turned out to be their final defeat — was the spark they needed to finish off with a 14-game winning streak and hoisting the trophy on a sunny day at McMurry Park in Sulphur.
“I don’t know what I’ll do now, but I can guarantee it won’t be as enjoyable as that was just now,” Antley said when asked about retirement. “It’s pretty incredible. Unimaginable, really. To win it like this in my last game is something I will always remember. It’s a special moment.”
Junior right hander Landon Hennen and catcher Gavin Murphy turned in huge games, with Murphy being named the Class B Outstanding Player in the championship game.
It could easily have been Hennen as well. Murphy went 3-for-4 at the plate with a run and 3 RBIs, including a mammoth, clutch, tworun home run in the fourth inning.
Hennen went the distance on the mound, pitching 7 innings. He gave up 6 runs, 4 of those earned and 10 hits to go along with 8 strikeouts. He also went 3-for-5 at the plate with 2 runs scored and 4 RBIs on the day.
Converse (20-8) jumped all over Hennen and the Aggies in the first inning, scoring twice on a pair of base hits. Judge Boudreaux had the big hit in the inning with a double to right field.
Choudrant answered the call in the bottom of the second off Boudreaux. With one out, TJ Smith singled, followed by a Jackson Case base hit. After a sacrifice by Eli Callendar moved the runners up a base, Hennen tied the game with a two-run single. An error by Converse allowed Hennen to score and Bryce McGuire to reach base. He would come around to score on an RBI hit by Murphy to increase the lead to 4-2.
Hennen began to settle into the game on the hill, while his teammates kept the pressure on Boudreaux and the Wildcats. In the bottom of the fourth, McGuire lined a one-out single and scored on Murphy’s titanic blast to left-center to make it 6-2 Aggies.
Momentum shifted once again, however.
Mason Procell led off the top of the fifth with a single, but Hennen induced back-to-back groundouts. Converse’s bats came up big at that point, scoring 4 runs with 2 outs in the inning. Brooks Boudreaux and Cameron Craig had RBI singles and Judge Boudreaux blasted another double to right that plated two more to tie the game at 6-6.
Antley called timeout to calm his hurler down and talk to the infield after an error. It worked when Hennen got Austin Burr to end the inning with a weak groundout.
“You know when we started playing well toward the end of the season we knew we had to do some things differently if we wanted to make a run,” Antley said. “We did those things and the guys had the attitude that even when things didn’t go well they weren’t going to put their heads down. It showed again today.”
It didn’t take long for the Aggies to make a championship push. Choudrant answered with 6 runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame. Calendar, Hennen, McGuire and Kaden Bradshaw all had run-scoring hits in the inning that not only gave CHS an insurmountable 12-6 lead, but also chased Judge Boudreaux out of the game.
“We faced him (Boudreaux) the first time and I thought we were a little tired in that game,” Antley said. “This time we had a good look at him and we were taking good cuts early in the game. That’s something that made a big difference down the stretch. We really started swinging the bats well and it continued in the playoffs.”
It was in stark contrast to facing the big southpaw earlier in the season, when he handcuffed the Aggies 5-2 with 13 strikeouts. Choudrant was having no part of losing to Converse twice.
By the time Caden Craig popped up to the infield for the final out, the Aggies pulled it off and sent Antley out with a victory.
McGuire added a pair of hits in the game with 3 runs scored, while Bradshaw had a hit and 2 RBIs. Case went 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored and Calendar and Smith had a hit apiece.
