The Paris Legends 11U baseball team continued its winning ways by claiming the NCS Labor Day Bash championship in Forney this past weekend. The Legends, seeded second in the tournament, defeated top-seeded Anna 6-3 in the title game.
“They want to do it for us,” Paris Legends 11U head baseball coach Macky Moree said. “Those kids want to play as good as they can for their parents, coaches, and teammates. I never go into these tournaments thinking we don’t have a chance, which is a coach’s dream.”
The Legends were previously the Paris Americans 10U baseball team when they won this year’s state championship in Longview, and the same team won the town’s first-ever Dixie Youth World Series in Brookhaven, Mississippi last year as the Paris All-Stars 9U baseball team. Moree and his staff have aimed to create a stable and winning culture for their players, and six tournaments have resulted in four championships and two second-place finishes.
“The biggest reason they buy in is because of the success that has been laid before them,” Moree said. “We are a small community and we don’t have a lot to choose from, but if you walk onto that field and you understand that you need to do the little things 100 percent of the time and the flashy stuff a little bit of the time — that’s what is going to make you a winner. That is what makes a program better in doing the small things, which isn’t just baseball. It has to do with our body language and attitude along with catching, throwing a, and hitting the baseball. We want to do all of these things the right way — the way that we’ve been taught. All of the coaches want the same thing, and they know that fundamentals are going to win you games both on offense and defense…the younger kids today are our future, and I feel we will be set up well when that time comes.”
Moree said he and his coaching staff are developing a strong core for the future of sports in the area from ages 7U and up. The development for the Legends took another big step in the right direction after the team’s quality performance in the NCS Labor Day Bash.
On Saturday, the Legends beat an older and more experienced team from Waco 6-3, then followed that up with an impressive 6-2 win over the Royse City Wolfpack. Both teams featured a roster of players transitioning from 11U to 12U.
On Sunday, Paris faced a familiar foe in Palestine, who previously defeated the Legends (then the Americans) in the super regionals earlier this year. However, Paris got its revenge at the game’s climax. The Legends trailed 5-1 with two outs in the bottom of the fifth and final inning in a single-elimination format of championship bracket play, but the Legends began their dramatic rally. An RBI-double from Mason Miller drove Kallan Gallahan and Ryder Moree across home plate to trim the deficit to 5-3. A few batters later, Ky Fortner stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. He quickly fell behind 0-2 in the count, but Fortner drove the next pitch he saw over the centerfield wall, giving his team a 7-5 win by virtue of his walk-off grand slam.
Later that day, the Legends faced a team from Diaboll in Texas, and Paris recorded an 8-4 victory thanks to solid performances on the mound from Fortner and Zeke Beard, coupled with quality defensive plays in the field and behind the plate from catcher Noah Williams. Williams caught three runners attempting to steal a base in his work defensively behind home plate.
Finally, the Legends took on top-seeded Anna, and Paris jumped ahead to a 3-0 lead in the first inning behind quality base running, according to Coach Moree. Anna trimmed Paris’ lead to 3-1 and to 6-3 after Paris pulled away again, but the Legends escaped a bases-loaded jam at the end of the game to preserve the three-run win and the tournament championship.
The Paris 10U Legends Navy team earned second place in the same tournament in their own bracket, which was the very first tournament for the team to ever participate in. Also, the Legends will be honored with a hot dog dinner in recognition of their state championship at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Charles Taylor Youth Complex at Woodall Field.
