Champion Comets adjust to summer ball: American Legion State Tournament begins July 12
Published 12:05 am Wednesday, July 3, 2019
- Coach Wane Stein talks to Southland Hogs Coach Joe Teuton as team members watch from the dugout Monday evening at St. Charles Catholic.
LAPLACE – There hasn’t been much time for any dust to accumulate on the state championship trophy that now resides in the St. Charles Catholic baseball team’s locker room.
It was only a few short months ago that the Comets finally broke their perpetual runner-up status and captured the Division II state title. They had been state runners-up seven times before, but finally won their team’s first championship in May.
“We’re still celebrating over here,” Comets coach Wayne Stein said. “We’re not done yet.”
And that makes the summer of 2019 a little different for Stein and his Townsend Homes American Legion team.
The St. Charles-based Catholic Townsend Homes Legion team is pictured in the dugout during a recent game against the Houma-based Southland Hogs. The team is setting its sights on the American Legion State Tournament.
“It is a little different in a lot of ways,” Stein said. “A couple of them are having a little trouble turning the page. They went from playing five of the most intense games of their lives to playing summer ball. It’s been an adjustment.”
The St. Charles-based team now is setting its sights on another state tournament. The American Legion State Tournament begins July 12 at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium in New Orleans. To qualify, the River Parishes teams of Townsend Homes (St. Charles), Jugy’s (East St. John), Reserve Athletics (Riverside), Noranda (Lutcher) and ES&H (Destrehan) will be doing battle this week in the Second District West Tournament.
Play began Monday and will continue through Friday at various fields in the area. To keep up with the schedule, fans may visit Kirschrooney.com.
Townsend Homes finished as the No. 1 seed in the district and earned a first-round bye. The two top finishers will advance to the state tournament. The winner of that will represent Louisiana at the Southeast Regional Tournament to be played in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 7-11. The American Legion World Series will begin Aug. 12 in Shelby, North Carolina.
For Stein, summer baseball has always been about getting ready for next year’s prep season. This summer, that is especially true. He lost seven of nine everyday players to graduation and has a lot of young guys who need experience to find their new roles.
“It’s a bunch of guys fighting for a job,” he said. “That part has been same old same old. They need the at bats, they need the experience, they need the bonding time.”
And while some coaches write off American Legion, Stein says the seeds for his team’s 2019 prep state championship were sown in 2017, when his team finished as the American Legion state runner-up.
“I saw those guys compete just cause and refuse to be eliminated,” Stein said. “That was where I knew that I had a group that had an opportunity to be a state champion. I knew we had some talent that summer, but I just saw some grittiness in them, a ‘we don’t care who we’re playing, we’re going to play our butt off to win’ (attitude). That’s what I love about Legion. Somebody has to end my summer.”
