Bobcats fall to Dragons
By Tom Dodge
The DeRidder Dragons used the momentum of Saturday’s win over Sam Houston to stun Eunice 5-3 on Tuesday.
With the loss the Bobcats (15-10, 6-2) are tied for first place in District 4-4A with the Dragons (16-11, 6-2) and Broncos (20-7, 6-2).
The Bobcats host Sam Houston 6 p.m. today and entertain Kinder 2 p.m. Saturday in non-district contest.
“The district is balanced,” Eunice head coach Scott Phillips said after the loss.
“It is ours to lose,” the coach said of a possible three-peat as district champions. “If we win out. we are district champs.
“They came to play and I thought we were a little flat,” the coach said. ““Hopefully we weren’t looking ahead to the next game. It just shows anybody can beat anybody in our district.”
DeRidder took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Justin Vick singled scored and scored on an infield error.
The Dragons added two more runs to its lead in the top of the fourth inning.
Jacob Spears singled, while Vick and Daniel Morrison both reached on bunts to load the bases.
Spears scored on a passed ball as DeRidder led 2-0.
Starting Dragon pitcher Samuel Peterson was ejected when he threw his bat after a called third strike.
Jordan Bartlett then followed with ground-rule double to plate Vick for a 3-0 advantage.
The hit was orginally ruled a home run but was changed to a double which DeRidder head coach Chad Menard argued and was ejected from the game.
“Sometimes team go down after their coach is ejected,” Phillips pointed out. “These guys played harder after their coach went out. That is a credit to them.”
DeRiddder forged ahead 5-0 in the top of the sixth inning when Morrison doubled and reliever Colin Hanchey homered over the left centerfield wall.
Eunice attempted a comeback as the Bobcats scored two runs in the bottom of the stanza to close the margin to three runs.
Mitchell Fuselier (2-for-4) singled and Austin Young drew a walk to open the rally.
Fuselier scored on a wild pitch and Tyler Fontenot (1-for-3) tripled fown the first baseline to plate Young.
Eunice added another run in the bottom of the seventh when Brett Baldwin walked and pinch runner Ethan Moser scored on single by Fuselier.
Stuart Turner suffered the loss for the Bobcats as he allowed four earned runs with 10 strikeouts, one walk and three hitbatsmen.
Peterson allowed two hits over the first three shutout innings before he was ejected.
Hanchey went three innings as he fanned four, walked three and allowed two earned runs.
Ed Barnett closed out the win as he allowed one hit and one run with two strikeouts and a walk in the seventh inning.
“It was one of those nights when we should have scored more,” Phillips said. “We had runners at second and third with nobody out and we just didn’t get it done.”