In Louisiana, the popular “who dat” chant is reserved for the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints.
The Springdale 9-year-old Cal Ripken All-Stars might have a right to that chant as well.
The Springdale 9s met and defeated all challengers en route to the Southwest Regional baseball championship on Tuesday in Zachary, La., scoring a pair of run-rule victories over Hamburg and the Little Rock Titans.
The win capped a perfect run through the district, state and regional tournaments for the team — the second straight year this group has made a perfect dash to the regional title, which is as far as Cal Ripken teams can advance until the age of 10.
In two seasons, the team is 43-0 in tournament play.
Springdale’s 12-0 win over the Titans took just four innings as Blake Adams and Kirby Jenkins combined on the shutout. Springdale scored nine runs in the first two innings.
Catcher Leon Westenkirchner, who was named the tournament Most Valuable Player, went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. Lucas McCain was 2-for-2 with a double, while Jake Williams added an RBI double and Adams also belted an RBI double.
Springdale advanced to the finals with an 11-1 drubbing of Hamburg earlier in the day. Adams again was dominant on the mound with two innings of no-hit pitching and JD Scott closed out the win.
The Springdale pitchers were aided greatly by error-free defense. It was the fourth straight game the Springdale team did not commit an infield error.
Brock Pounders tripled and added a pair of RBIs to lead the way. McCain added a pair of RBIs and a double and Grant Allen was 2-for-3. Adams, Jenkins and Westenkirchner all had multiple hits.
To move into the championship bracket, Springdale, which outscored its opponents 100-11 in the regional, used an 8-3 win over Randall Co., Texas, on Monday. The locals actually trailed 3-0 — the first time the team trailed in any game of the regional — before scoring eight straight runs.
Not only did Springdale trail 3-0 in the first, Randall Co. had runners at first and second with no outs before Springdale’s Scott made a pair of nice defensive plays to get runners at third and Jenkins got a popup to short to end the inning.
Springdale rallied to take the lead and Adams pitched three scoreless innings to mow down the Texans.
“Who dat” talking ‘bout beating this Springdale team? No one has in two years.