CLICK HERE TO BUY A DIGITAL DOWNLOAD OF THIS VIDEO
By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
AURORA – As the Aurora Houn’ Dawgs celebrated their district championship on Thursday evening, they realized the newest member of the team was about to miss the trophy presentation.
It wasn’t the teammate’s fault. After all, turtles are famously slow.
You read that right.
The Houn’ Dawgs defeated Mt. Vernon 8-0 to win the Class 4 District 11 title with the help of “Sosa” — an actual, real-life turtle whose mysterious arrival has fueled the team’s playoff run.
“He’s our rally turtle,” center fielder Aaron Fisher said.
As the top seed and host of their district tournament, the Houn’ Dawgs had a first-round bye when postseason play began on Monday. When players arrived at the field that day for practice, they were surprised to discover a turtle had taken up residence in one of their bullpens.
It’s not entirely clear how the turtle found its way into the fenced area, which is usually shut and padlocked when not in use. The leading theory is that landscapers found the animal when they were getting ready to mow the outfield and put it in the bullpen to keep it out of harm’s way.
Initially perplexed, players were quick to embrace the turtle as one of their own.
“We just decided to keep it and it’d just be our lucky charm,” second baseman Kelton Brown said.
Sports lore is filled with stories of animals who have brought good luck to their teams, such as the “Rally Squirrel” who dashed across the Busch Stadium field during the St. Louis Cardinals’ run to the 2011 World Series. There’s also the time Scott Mellanby used his hockey stick to kill a rat that had infiltrated the Florida Panthers’ locker room in 1995, then scored twice using that same stick.
The Houn’ Dawgs are making sure Sosa’s experience is considerably more positive than that rat’s.
Fisher said he and fellow senior Trey Mulholland went to the local Walmart and “spent some booster club money that we got for our senior night” to buy the turtle a non-bullpen habitat.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Sosa’s current home now contains fresh water, food, shelter and — fittingly — a baseball. Sosa sat in it in the Aurora dugout during Thursday’s decisive victory over their Big 8 East rivals.
“That’s like the third house it’s had — and it keeps getting bigger,” Aurora coach James Hoffman said. “It’s spoiled. It’s spoiled.”
Mulholland said the Houn’ Dawgs placed as many as 19 potential names for the turtle on a whiteboard in their dugout before voting for Sosa. The turtle shares a name with former major league slugger Sammy Sosa, who spent the majority of his 19-year career with the Chicago Cubs.
“Kids do weird stuff,” Hoffman said. “Whatever. As long as they’re being nice to it.”
They are – and Sosa seems to be bringing them some good fortune.
The first six batters who came to the plate all came around to score as the Houn’ Dawgs erupted for a seven-run first inning. Not exactly slow and steady, but it was a baseball game – not a race.
Fisher opened the scoring with an RBI triple and Brown added a two-run double to make it 3-0 after just four batters. Brown scored on a wild pitch and Heath Hoffman and Ryan Clark added RBI doubles, chasing Mt. Vernon freshman Braden Dodson before he recorded an out.
“Everyone was just hitting the ball hard and everyone was just hitting it deep and we were getting extra bases,” Fisher said. “Instead of singles, we were getting doubles and triples … We were smacking the ball. Looking for the fastball and just driving it.”
Jaesik Friggle added another RBI triple later in the inning to give the Houn’ Dawgs a 7-0 lead.
That was more than enough for Mulholland, who threw seven shutout innings, struck out five and finished with a pitch count in the mid-70s. He faced just 23 batters – two above the minimum – and his defense turned two double plays behind him.
“All year, we’ve had a great defense with me on the mound,” Mulholland said. “It’s awesome to come in and come out the way we did. There were a lot of balls put in play. We had multiple double plays. It’s great defense. When you have a defense like that, it’s really easy on the pitcher. They make me look good.”
After the initial outburst, Aurora didn’t score again until Brendan Hall grounded into a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning. Heath Hoffman came home from third.
The Houn’ Dawgs won their two district playoff games by a combined score of 15-2, improving to 21-5 on the year. They currently sit eighth in the state rankings and will travel to fifth-ranked Summit Christian Academy (22-2-1) for a sectional on Tuesday.
With Mulholland as their ace and a solid top-to-bottom the lineup, the Houn’ Dawgs were already a formidable opponent before Sosa wandered into their bullpen earlier this week.
But their response has shown how this group of players has a fundamentally different mentality than the Aurora teams that won back-to-back state championships in 2017 and 2018.
They’re talented, but they also know how to have fun.
“It’s a great group of kids,” James Hoffman said. “They play loose. They’re completely different than the other groups that we’ve had that have been really good. Those guys just showed up and would just whip your tail. These guys are a little bit different and you have to get used to them. They’re just fun to be around. Great kids – that’s the bottom line. The way they carry themselves off the field is just as impressive as what they do on the field.”
They carry on the field, too.
As Mulholland went to pick up the championship plaque – Aurora’s first since 2018 – Fisher realized Sosa had been left in the dugout during the post-game celebration. He quickly ran back to the dugout, lifted Sosa out of its home and carried the turtle out onto the field to join the party.
Sosa’s shell had been decorated with red and white stripes, matching Aurora’s game jerseys.
“We’ll never lose him like that,” Fisher quipped.
As the Houn’ Dawgs lifted the plaque over their heads, Fisher also lifted Sosa above the team in a scene that appeared straight out of the Disney classic “The Lion King.”
“Nothing is going to surprise me out of these guys,” James Hoffman said. “As long as it wasn’t a snake, I really don’t care.”
MT. VERNON (14-13) 000 000 0 — 0
AURORA (21-5) 700 010 x — 8
