Last year, Ben Sheets led his Sheets Baseball team, a 10-year-olds’ team, into the Governor’s Cup.

This year, the former 2000 Olympic Gold Medal winner and all-star pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers is back in the Major Leagues with the Atlanta Braves, but his organization brought two teams, one competing in the 9-year-olds’ tournament and one in the 11-year-olds’, to this year’s Governor’s Cup.

Sheets Baseball won the 9-year-olds’ championship game against the Mississippi Heat.

Delaney Fontenot, a Ville Platte, La., native who coached the 9-year-olds’ Sheets team, got plenty of text messages during the game from his friend. The MLB pitcher, watching the Braves beat the Houston Astros 6-1 Sunday, eagerly followed the progress of both his teams.

“He was always wanting to know how we’re doing,” Fontenot said. “I told him that I’m Joe Torre (former New York Yankees manager) and he told me ‘well, Joe Torre needs to have a seat on the bucket.’”

Fontenot kept the updates coming and the Sheets team, which was thrown together from what Fontenot called the “four corners of Louisiana,” kept winning.

Sheets’ son Seaver plays for the 11-year-olds’ team, which lost to the Caldwell Rockers 11-5 in the quarterfinals. It was the first tournament for the second Sheets team, and a successful one to boot.

“He became a friend of mine through another friend of mine and he asked me to coach it,” Fontenot said. “He started this younger team this year and I think he might keep something together with two teams this spring and this fall. We’ve got some good talent on this team.”

Speaking of success, Sheets has been sterling on the mound for the Atlanta Braves after making two starts with the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park. Despite coming off a two-year layoff with two elbow surgeries, he’s gone 3-1 with a 1.46 ERA and 23 strikeouts. His next start will come tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies.

“It’s fun to know someone like that and he’s as down-to-earth as they come,” Fontenot said. “I’m fortunate to be a friend of his.”

Fontenot was just happy to keep his friend’s team on the right path.

“There’s no pressure out here coming behind him,” Fontenot said. “Ben wants us to have fun and for the kids to have a good experience. I think that’s his main goal. Winning is just the icing on the cake. These kids know how to play baseball the right way and coaching talent like that is a lot of fun.”