Before a few weeks ago, Vidalia had never claimed a state championship in 8-and-under Little League Softball.

Josh Hargon’s team of 12 all-stars changed that on July 1, winning the coach pitch tournament on its home field.

“There have been a lot of good athletes come through coach pitch,” Hargon said. “For this team to do that, it shows they were better.”

Just one week later, it was déjà vu.

Vidalia returned from the machine pitch state tournament in Lake Charles, reigning victorious once more.

“It’s cool to win two,” Vidalia coach Josh Hargon said. “It is something to be proud of.”

This is the first year Little League has opted to split the tournaments, only playing machine pitch in past years and during the regular season.

Hargon said his team had very little experience competing with a live arm, leaving them just a few weeks to practice.

Hargon said the coach pitch tournament was originally organized with four teams, yet fell to just two because of participation issues. His team won the championship game over Avoyelles, 27-4.

“We were worried we wouldn’t do well, but we said we would just do it because it was in Vidalia,” he said. “They did struggle at first, and the first two weeks at practice we would mix it up. I knew we would be good at running and we were fast, but I really thought maybe we wouldn’t be a good team.”

It turns out, Hargon’s worries ended up becoming the team’s biggest strength.

Through it’s remaining tournament games, Hargon said Vidalia averaged at least 20 hits a game. It won the machine pitch title over Lake Charles, 9-3.

“We played pretty good defense, but everyone else did, too. We hit the ball better than anybody else, that’s why we won,” he said.

Through three straight weekends of play, Hargon said he is proud of how everything turned out.

However, there will be no further advancement as region and world championships are limited to older age groups.

“It took us a little while, but they attacked the ball,” he said. “Once we figured (coach pitch) out, I didn’t want to go back. They really came through.”