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Hannah Vidallier leaves LSUE with two national championship titles.

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The team celebrates after the win on Saturday.

Vidallier goes out in style at LSUE

She pitches final three innings of Championship game

Hannah Vidallier’s softball career ended like she had hoped.
In her two years at LSU-Eunice, she leaves with two Division II Junior College National Championships.
The LSU-Eunice Lady Bengals won their fifth national championship with a dramatic 8-7 win over top-ranked Jones County Junior College, Saturday at Traceway Park.
Vidallier, a North Vermilion High graduate, pitched the final three innings in the finals. She gave up one run, two hits, and walking one.
“All I wanted to do was contribute to a World Series Championship, and I did that,” said Vidallier. “It went in my favor.”
In the finals, Lady Bengal starter Abigail Leonards (Iota HS) threw four innings, surrendering six earned runs, 10 hits with one strikeout and two walks
Throughout the season, Vidallier was considered the Lady Bengels closer. She had not pitched in the World Series until the final three innings.
After being told to go warm up, she came back in the dugout with her game face on. Her coach asked her if she was ready.
“Yes sir,” she said. “I’m ready.”
LSUE was down 6-4 when she got on the mound.
Was she nervous?
“I don’t get nervous anymore,” she said. “When I pitched in the state softball tournament for North Vermilion as a freshman, I was really nervous then. But not now.”
Emily Henderson (North Desoto HS) scored the game winning run when she advanced on a squeeze bunt by Haley Godeaux (Cecilia HS) and the Lady Bengals’ celebration began.
Jordan Bishop (Newton County HS) singled to open the inning and pinch runner Abby Trahan (Hackberry HS) tied the game when she scored on a wild pitch.
LSUE trailed 7-6 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning after the Lady Bengal defense held the Lady Bobcats forcing a double play and a ground-out to snuff an offensive threat.
LSUE (53-11) finished with 12 hits, led by tournament MVP Rebecca Skains who went 3-for-4 including two home runs.
Also, at the plate, in the first game of the World Series, Vidallier hit two home runs to help LSUE win.
When she was not pitching, she was the designated player (hitter). In 35 at bats, she had hit only one home run this year. In the World Series, she hit two. She finished the year with around a .340 batting average and was 5-0 on the mound.
“I got what I wanted when I came to LSUE,” said Vidallier on Sunday. “I came to LSUE to win a national championship. We won two. I also had to fight for a position. There are so many talented girls on this team. You had to work for your position. Nothing was given.”
When she walked off the mound, it also meant the end of her pitching career because LSUE is only a two-year school.
It is now time for her to move on and begin focusing on her career.
In the fall, she will enroll in Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.
She will begin studying to become a physical therapist assistant over the next two years.
But don’t think she is walking away from softball. It has been a part of her life for the last 16 years.
“I have been playing softball since I was three,” she said. “I will stay involved by coaching or giving pitching lessons.”

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