EMERSON, Ga. -- There were undoubtedly countless times last August when the beleaguered residents of Denham Springs, La., thought the sky would never quit crying and that the sun would never again make an appearance to help dry up their tears of desperation.
And maybe that's the reason that the young ballplayers from Denham Springs High School seemed so appreciative -- almost joyful -- to be walking out onto a baseball diamond under a cloudless sky, saturated by brilliant sunshine that more than adequately warmed their spirits.
"It means a lot for us to be out here, because all of us have been through so much this past offseason," Yellow Jackets senior left-hander/first baseman Brock Batty said before he and his teammates played their opening game at the fifth annual PG High School Showdown.
And don't forget about 17th-year Denham Springs head coach Mark Carroll. The baseball lifer is in his 33rd year of coaching, and setting out on the course of a new season never gets old -- especially under some trying circumstances.
"This is awesome; this is what it's all about," Carroll said. "They were very much looking forward to this trip and get away from some that yahoo back home. Now they get to take a deep breath and just go out and play."
A whole bunch of "yahoo," truth be told -- probably a lot more than any of the other teams in attendance at the PG HS Showdown has had to endure over the past seven months.
Denham Springs lies about 13 miles east of Baton Rouge, the Louisiana state capital and home to Louisiana State University. The Amite River flows just to the west of Denham Springs' downtown business district, between the two cities but closer to Denham Springs.
In a period that bridged Aug. 12-14, 2016, what national meteorologists described as a "complicated, slow-moving, low-pressure weather system" set off a deluge of historic proportions -- a 100-year weather event -- that delivered nearly two feet of rain to Livingston Parish and other parishes in the Baton Rouge area.

The Amite River roared out of its banks, and floodwaters eventually inundated an estimated 90 percent of all structures -- homes, businesses, schools, churches, government buildings -- in Denham Springs, a municipality of just more than 10,000 residents.
Denham Springs High School was among the casualties, and its students had to start the school year by sharing facilities with Live Oak High School, which is also part of the Livingston Parish Public School District. Denham Springs High School wasn't ready to be occupied again until January, and Carroll is still unable to use his office at the school because the doors haven't been replaced.
Even now, seven months since the floodwaters subsided, many of the school's students and their families are living in FEMA trailers or staying with relatives who escaped much of the floodwater's wrath. But make no mistake, no one was totally unaffected.
"Everything that was normal in your life was different starting right then," Carroll said. "It was unbelievable the devastation in that community, property-wise, to the stores and the homes. You couldn't believe it until you saw it. Everything was just so crazy."
Batty's family home escaped a lot of the devastation incurred on others in town, although the family was still forced to evacuate it for several days. No one he knows was completely untouched, and he marvels at how the natural disaster has ultimately brought the community even closer together.
"For a while there at first, it felt like maybe it was going to separate us. But then everybody just came back stronger," Batty said. "Everybody was out there helping each other and doing everything they could, and now all the local businesses -- the businesses everybody loved -- are slowly coming back, and they're coming back even better."
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Batty sensed that many members of the community had lost any hope that the way of life they had always known would ever return. People were breaking down, he said, and acknowledging that they just didn't know how much more they could take.
But when it comes to fighting back from a natural disaster, time can be a great healer. Everyone's mood brightens every time families return to their rebuilt homes and every time one of those beloved businesses reopens its doors.
"Everybody is way more positive and way more optimistic about everything," Batty said.
Added senior catcher Braden Doughty: "It can be depressing, seeing all the broken-down homes and everything. But it's also very uplifting to see all the new things that are being built, all the productivity that's coming from it."
The flooding forced the Doughty family out of their home, but they were able to settle in in with their grandparents for close to a month.
"My parents were super calming -- they were the rock -- and they helped us get through it," Doughty said.
And now, a new baseball season is off and running.
The Jackets are coming off a 2016 season in which they finished 18-12 in what Carroll called a bit of rebuilding year. The roster they brought to this week's PG HS Showdown includes eight seniors, six juniors and three sophomores.
The left-hander/first baseman Batty is the senior leader, a Louisiana-Lafayette signee; Doughty is also an important cog in the team's machinery. Sophomore Cade Doughty has already committed to LSU. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound, soon-to-be 16-year-old played on the 2016 15U Team USA bronze-medal team in Japan.
"The thing that we say at every game before we take the field is, 'Play hard and have fun,'" Carroll said. "There are mistakes that are going to be made every game by me and everybody, but if you play as hard as you can and have fun doing it, then you've had a successful game.
"This is a determined group. Things didn't really go our way that first weekend [of the season] … but they've kind of put their nose back to it and got after it again."
Denham Springs won a Louisiana state baseball championship in 1986, when Ben McDonald was starring in both baseball and basketball. McDonald went on to enjoy an All-American career at LSU -- he won the 1989 Golden Spikes Award as college baseball's top player -- and the Baltimore Orioles made him the No. 1 overall pick in the first round of the 1989 Draft.
After LSU, McDonald enjoyed a seven-year big league career with the Orioles and the Milwaukee Brewers. His son, Jase McDonald, is a sophomore right-hander/first baseman on this year's Yellow Jackets team. Jase McDonald and his teammates have probably had to go through more in their young careers then Ben had to endure, but it seems like they're coming through it just fine.
"I've played in a lot of [PG] tournaments here [with travel ball team Marucci Elite] and I've almost won a couple of tournaments here, but this is by far the most special trip. It's a different atmosphere," Batty said of Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint. "A lot of our guys have overcome a lot of adversity … and I feel like that motivates everybody and everybody is ready to play."
Added Doughty: "I think we're definitely more determined; we know what we want. We like to play but we also like to work hard, and I just hope our hard work shows up out on the field."
Carroll likes to tell his players that they have the "misfortune/good fortune" of having an old-school coach who believes that playing baseball -- or any sport, really -- provides an opportunity to learn valuable life lessons.
In this case, baseball gives this group of kids something to temporarily avert their attention away from some harsh realities they are still confronting back home. It gives them something positive on which they can focus their energy.
"[The flood is] definitely going to be something in these kids' lives that they're never, ever going to forget," Carroll said. "Hopefully they're going to learn a lot of positive life lessons from it, about how to band together and be the person that's going to help somebody else that's in trouble and needs your help. And they did. They worked their tails off at their house and their friends' houses, and that's really what our whole community did."
Doughty may have summed up all these challenging experiences better than anyone.
"I think we're really just grateful for everything we have after everything we've been through. We've become closer," he said. "We know that even if you for 0-for-4, you have to keep your head up and know that you're good and know that you have another day to go out and fight for the person next to you.
"I honestly just hope everybody has a great time. I hope that we have a blast. Just play hard, and if we win four games, great. And if we lose four games, great. Just have fun and enjoy the experience."
For the record, the Yellow Jackets went 3-1, and they were once again were able to enjoy life, sunshine and the game they love.