Summer to Remember

The Ruston 10U AAA All-Star Team capped off a summer of fun memories with a third place finish at the 2023 DYB World Series Tuesday.

Despite early-morning drizzle and ominous skies, the Ruston community filled the stands and let their support be known throughout Tuesday’s semifinal game at the Ruston Sports Complex for the elimination game.

Pontiff ( Louisiana) defeated Ruston 8-3 to advance to the DI AAA championship, but Ruston AAA head coach Cody Channell wanted his team to remember the work they put in to make it this far and feel the community rallying around them.

“Just how proud we are of them,” Channell said postgame. “Lane Burroughs spoke the other day about appreciation, and I asked them to look behind them and look at all the support they’ve had over this weekend, and, maybe not today, but write a little letter of appreciation. The main message was how proud we are of them and how hard they fought all summer. They spent the whole summer for this moment and they earned it.”

Pontiff looked to threaten in the second inning with the bases loaded and nobody out. But Ruston’s pitching and defense got out of the jam with no damage, capped off by a diving play at second base by Lane Channell as he flipped to second for the roaring out.

In the third, Pontiff broke through with a ground out fielder’s choice to bring home a run, but Ruston responded thanks to a tworun double off the bat of Cooper Stoehr to bring home Jameson Sutton and Bear Brashear to give Ruston a 2-1 lead.

Pontiff answered in the top of the fifth after four straight bunts allowed runners to move around and eventually tie the game at 2-2 before retaking a 3-2 lead.

The small-ball approach continued, as Pontiff batters squared around to force Ruston’s defense to make plays in the following innings as they went ahead 8-2 going into the bottom of the sixth.

“We worked on it a lot, it’s fundamental baseball,” Channell said. “We made a mistake, they kept doing it and the pressure gets to these young kids, it’s just tough on them. They are 10. They know what to do, but in that moment with the fans and situation it was just tough.”

In the sixth inning, Pontiff scored two more runs on a passed ball thrown to first base for a 5-2 lead and tacked on three more before the top half was over. However, Ruston didn’t go down without a fight, as Channell brought in Stoehr from third to make it 8-3.

Stoehr led the team at the plate, reaching base three times (walk, double, single), while Brashear collected two singles.

After family hugs and group pictures, Channell gathered his team in shallow left field on bended knee, looking his team in the eyes as he reminded them how much they accomplished.

As for what he’ll remember most about the Ruston 10U All Stars’ season, Channell went back to how much work was put in by the kids. “Just everything. The grind, the sweat, just the grind,” Channell said. “They came together. It took us a minute but just very proud of them.”

Channell was assisted by Chris Doolittle and Seth Riser. The Ruston 10U AAA All Stars consisted of Truman “Levi” McColloch, Henry Pullin, Charlie Williams, Barry “Bear” Brasher, Lane Channell, Lucas Shaw, Cooper Stoehr, Abram Riser, Tucker Underwood, Jameson Sutton and Brantlee Doolittle.