Team Louisiana 19U finishes 3rd in nation

Team Louisiana, a summer league team featuring some of the area's top high school baseball talent, finished the World Wood Bat Association National Championship in third place.

The tournament featured 128 of the top teams and only three from the entire state of Louisiana qualified.

The Team Louisiana features Aaron George and Jake Slaughter of Ouachita Christian, Dustin Mitchell of West Monroe and Oliver Campbell of Neville.

"It was really good," Coach Jeremy Picard said. "Our bats got hot and the kids continued to stay in the moment."

The team was undefeated in pool play and went 9-1 overall after dropping the semifinals 7-6 in eight innings.

The contingent of local players had showcase performances throughout the week to help the team stay on the winning side of things.

Over the weekend, George was 2-0 with nine strikeouts over 10 innings pitched. Slaughtet was hot at the plate going 15-of-32 to lead team in hits.

Mitchell and Campbell all had solid weeks as well.

"(Slaughter) is one who, when the lights come on, he locks in at the right time," Picard said. "(Mitchell) has been with us two years and he is one of those blue collar kids that comes to work hard every day. (George) probably threw the ball as well as I have seen this week which was huge for us to keep advancing. (Campbell) threw a big game for us and then was steady all week in centerfield. He was a big part of the run too."

Team Louisiana will compete in two more tournaments this summer before giving the players time to prepare for the beginning of school in August.

The team heads to Houston for a tournament at a Rice University next week followed by a tournament at UL Lafayette the following week.

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