Welcome to the website of the Ponchatoula High School Green Wave baseball team.  The Wave, coached by Mark Gosnell, plays in the stately confines of historic Athletic Park, one of the best prep baseball facilities in Louisiana.  Ponchatoula traditionally fields one of the top prep teams in south Louisiana, and in the spring of 2008 the Green Wave pulled off one of the most successful seasons in Ponchatoula baseball history.  The Wave not only qualified for the 5A state baseball playoffs from District 7-5A, one of the toughest baseball districts in the state, they won both bi-district and regional round playoff games to become the first team in Ponchatoula baseball history to make the 5A state tournament comprised of eight elite teams.  Ponchatoula finished 20-12 overall with roughly half of its opponents having qualified for the state 5A playoffs.  So successful was Ponchy's season that the 2008 state 5A championship game pitted Barbe, the 2006 5A champ and the team to eliminate the Wave from this year's state quarterfinals, against Jesuit, the 2007 5A state champ which the Green Wave beat 4-2 earlier this season.

In 2009 the Green Wave returned only two starters from the previous season, but despite a grueling schedule with over 20 games against state playoff teams, Ponchy was competitive and battled down to the wire, narrowly missing the state 5A playoffs.  In fact, if state playoff berths had been awarded on a "power point" system factoring in strength of competition like they will this coming 2010 season, the PHS club would have qualified for the playoffs.  The District 7-5A champion Northshore Panthers eventually won the state 5A title and finished in the national top five in every major poll, including a #2 ranking in the country by the USA Today. 

With six Green Wave starters returning this season, including All-District players Elisha Settoon, Dylan Hills, Dylan Meyers and Justin Crowell, Ponchatoula is looking to contend strongly for the district title and a 5A playoff spot in 2010.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association has released the power ranking formula for determining wildcard entries in the state baseball playoffs for the 2010 prep season.

With only first and second-place teams receiving automatic berths from each 5A district, there will be 12 wildcard teams selected from the 5A classification based on the Power Rankings Formula below.

For each game (win or lose) teams are awarded the same number of points as the number of victories of the opponent they faced- added to 10 points per game for defeating those in their own classification, adding 12 points for games winning over a team one classification higher, adding 14 points for defeating a team two classifications higher, and so on.  No additional points are given (beyond the number of opponent's victories) for defeating a team in a lower classification or for losing any game.

The final power ranking percentage is arrived at by dividing the number of power points by the number of games played.  Opponents victories calculated in the final rankings are those accumulated by teams at the end of the regular season.

The remainder of LHSAA guidelines for the 2010 prep baseball season can be viewed at http://www.lhsaa.org/images/db_handbook/38.pdf 

The Ponchatoula Green Wave has announced several changes to its 2010 spring schedule, including moving the April 29th district finale with arch-rival Hammond from the Tornados' home field to Southeastern's Alumni Field.

Hammond will remain the home team for the contest slated to begin at 6:30pm.  The junior varsity game previously scheduled for 4 pm. to precede the varsity fray that day at Hammond has been cancelled. 

In another schedule change, the game time for the Ponchatoula varsity's March 27th road trip to Mandeville has been changed to 12 noon.  The junior varsity starting time has been moved up to 10 am. that day. 

"Game Day Sponsorships" for all players are due Jan. 27th.  Please turn in your Game Days to Coach Jeremy Harper or president Tessa Hills (Tessa.Hill@tangischools.org or 985-507-1598).

Other Booster Club board members for 2010 include vice-president Chris Foster (985-974-4031, chrisfoster1@bellsouth.net), treasurer Freddie Falconello (985-969-1735, ffalconello@bellsouth.net), and secretary Judy Bass (985-634-8482, judithbass@stpsb.org). 

The Ponchatoula Green Wave has completed January tryouts and selected 11 newcomers for its 2010 spring roster, including two seniors and nine freshmen. 

Seniors added include pitcher-infielder Trey Marino, a transfer from St. Stanislaus (Ms.) and former All-District 9-2A player with St. Thomas Acquinas of Hammond, and outfielder Joe Green, standout running back for Ponchatoula who made the All-District 7-5A first team in football.

Freshmen selected to the roster include Brennan Castello, Grant Gainous, Brice Hubert, Quenton Landry, Shane Narro, Brady Raiford, Landyn Ragan, Tyler Robinson and Will Thompson.

The Green Wave began practicing with its full roster last week and will resume at 2 pm. Monday at Athletic Park.

The Greenies open the 2010 slate with a pair of scrimmages against Brother Martin Feb. 13 (home) and Franklinton Feb. 17 (away). 

The Ponchatoula Green Wave varsity baseball team, setting its sights on the state 5A playoffs this spring, will begin its 2010 spring practice schedule Tuesday, Jan. 5th at Ponchatoula's Athletic Park.

Tryouts for newcomers to the Ponchy baseball program will be held Jan. 6-7 at Athletic Park before the Green Wave varsity kicks it in full gear Jan. 8th in preparation for the 2010 season which opens with scrimmages Feb. 13th (Brother Martin) and Feb. 17th (Franklinton).

The Green Wave returns six regular starters, including senior starting pitcher-infielders Dylan Hills and Elisha Settoon.   Sophomore Dylan Meyers returns at catcher while seniors Randall Meyers and Justin Crowell return in the outfield.  Senior Kaleb Kraft returns as a DH while junior Darren Bach started several games on the mound.  Sophomores Blake Falconello and Ryan Byers saw spot starting duty in the infield while junior Brett Vampran saw some starting duty in both the infield and outfield. 

Hills was named to the All District 7-5A first team while Settoon and Dylan Meyers were named second team All-District 7-5A.  Crowell won honorable mention recognition.

In addition to six returning seniors, the 2010 version of the Ponchatoula Green Wave baseball team features four returning juniors and 12 sophomores.

Freshmen and a few upperclassmen will be selected at the Jan. 5-6 tryouts at Athletic Park.

Leading the juniors for the 2010 Greenie varsity will be outfielder Brett Vampran and pitcher-infielder Darren Bach, both of whom saw spot duty during the 2009 prep season and started on the Pevey Realtors' summer American Legion squad which won the district title.  Other juniors returning are P-OF Hayden Hutches and P-IF Mark Traylor, both of whom saw action on the 2009 Wave junior varsity club.

Heading up the sophomore class is starting catcher Dylan Meyers, who was named second team All-District 7-5A as a freshman.  In addition to Meyers, infielders Blake Falconello and Ryan Byers saw spot duty on the 2009 varsity as did pitcher Branden Lessard.  Along with Meyers, Falconello and Byers, infielders Brady Bass and Jake Lipps and DH Zach Traylor saw action with the Pevey Realtors' varsity club during the summer.

Tyler Corbin, Taylor Denham, Trey Foster, Jacob Mercante, Nathan Plauche and Zack Rock round out the PHS sophomore class.

The Ponchatoula Green Wave junior varsity has released its 2010 spring schedule of 24 games.  Included are preseason scrimmages with Covington and Amite, the Lakeshore jamboree, and a playing date with Parkview Baptist.

District foes Lakeshore (new school split off from Fontainebleau), Mandeville, Covington, St. Paul, and Fontainebleau dot the schedule along with a pair of doubleheaders with Albany. 

Meanwhile, the Wave freshman team announced its seven-game slate, featuring Covington, St. Paul and Fontainebleau as opponents.

The PHS 2010 varsity, junior varsity and freshman team schedules can be viewed by clicking the "Green Wave Schedules/Results" link in the left-hand column and then clicking on the "2010 Spring Prep Season" in the upper right hand corner drop-down box.

A robust 35-game schedule, including 21 games against state playoff teams from a year ago and eight against teams finishing in the state 5A final Top 15, has been announced for the 2010 spring season by Ponchatoula Green Wave baseball coach Mark Gosnell.

The complete 2010 PHS varsity schedule can be viewed by clicking the "Green Wave schedules/results" link in the column to the left and on the resulting page clicking the "full schedule" link at the top right.

The Wave will play a minimum of nine games against 2009 state playoff opponents in pre-district tournaments at East Ascension, Parkview Baptist, St. Amant and Athletic Park (Gateway Ford Classic).

Opponents in the East Ascension Tournament will be state playoff opponents Tioga (4A), New Iberia (5A), Holy Cross (4A), and Dutchtown (5A, finished as state runnerup).

The Parkview Baptist tourney will feature games against familiar playoff opponents Parkview (state 3A champion), Central (5A) and St. Edmund (1A). 

The Gateway Ford Classic will feature playoff participants Franklinton (4A) and Newman (2A) in addition to South Lafourche (5A).

The St. Amant tourney schedule has not yet been finalized.

The 14-game District 7-5A schedule opens March 23rd against defending 5A state champion Northshore, ranked in five separate national Top Five polls at season's end, including No. 2 by the USA Today.

The tough 2010 schedule appears that it will benefit the Green Wave as playoff seeding and slots will be determined for the first time this year by the "power point" rating system, which takes into account strength of schedule.

The Wave returns six starters, including most of its pitching staff, from a year ago.

I am very proud of our "Baseball" year in 2009.  We returned only two starters from the '08 squad that made it to the state tournament in Denham Springs and the State Quarterfinals.  The Green Wave battled in arguably the toughest district in the state all the way to deep in the second round of league play with a chance to make the playoffs.

This experience carried over to the summer where the PHS squad "Pevey Realtors" won their division and qualified for the Southeast Regional Tournament.  Ponchatoula's Athletic Park was the host site for the regional and produced this year's state champion Peake BMW (Brother Martin).  This past year's prep state champion also came from a 7-5A district rival in the Northshore Panthers.  Our coaching staff is very excited about the upcoming season and is looking forward to competing for a district title and a return trip to the state tournament at Tulane.

I would like to personally thank Mr. Rick White for his time and effort to make our summer programs a success.  Also, special thanks to Tessa Hills, Rick Settoon, and all other parents and Grand Slam Booster Club members for their time and commitment to Ponchatoula Baseball.

Special congratulations to senior Dylan Hills who has verbally committed to Southeastern and will sign in November during the early signing period.

See you at the ballpark.

Mark Gosnell  

Former Green Wave pitcher-catcher Torin Lucas, the District 7-5A Most Valuable Player in 2008, was recently named the Top Hitter in the five-game Southeastern Louisiana University World Series.

A sophomore catcher for the Lions, Lucas went 7-for-14 for a .500 batting average in the series.  He had two doubles, five RBI and scored three runs.

Lucas will be battling for a starting position next spring for Southeastern.

As a Ponchatoula senior in 2008, Lucas was a perfect 6-0 on the mound, earning first team 5A All-State honors.  Lucas led Ponchy to its first-ever berth in the 5A state quarterfinals at Denham Springs.  He was later selected to play in the Louisiana All-Star game. 

Lucas is one of five current Greenies playing college baseball.  Bryn Thompson will be a senior for McNeese State while Lucas's former catching battery-mate, Seth Bratton, plays for Delta State.  Laramie Pittman, another of Lucas's teammates, and Dylan Posey play for Southwest Mississippi Junior College.