Bobcats surge to avoid upset
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
The Eunice High Bobcats scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to escape a costly upset to the LaGrange Gators and win 5-4 Tuesday afternoon.
The Gators (3-16; 2-9) scored first in the top of the fourth inning when Ryan Piper singled, advanced to third on two wild pitches, and scored on Jared Carter’s grounder.
Eunice (17-11; 7-3) got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth when Mitchell Fuselier and Austin Young drew walks before Stuart Turner doubled in two runs.
Later, Miles Fontenot reached on an error to score a third run.
But LaGrange tied the score 3-3 in the top of the next inning, with Irving Alexander driving in one run before the Gators scored another run on a Bobcat error.
LaGrange retook the lead in the top of the seventh, when Paul Guillory was hit by a pitch from Turner, advanced on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on Carter’s base hit.
The pressure on, the Bobcats took advantage of a couple of crucial Gator errors to score the tying run in the second half when Fuselier reached on an error, stole second, and then scored when Turner reached on an error.
Eunice ended the game when intentional walks were issued to Jacque Frugé and Tyler Fontenot, loading the bases, before Miles Fontenot’s base hit drove one run home for the win.
Turner (4-3) took the win for Eunice, giving up one unearned run on one hit while striking out one batter in the last inning of the game.
Over the weekend, the Bobcats improved their overall record with a 10-9 win over 5-2A champion Kinder.
Kinder scored one run in the top of the first and then added seven more in the third inning for an indomitable-looking 8-0 lead.
But Eunice surged in the second half, going through the entire batting order to score 10 runs.
Kinder added one more run in the top of the seventh, before Eunice closed the door on the Yellow Jacket’s scoring.
Relief pitcher Frugé (3-2) pitched the win, giving up three runs, two of them earned, off of five hits and a walk.
Frugé struck out three batters in the last four-and-one-thirds innings of the game.
The Bobcats host Washington-Marion tonight at 5:30 p.m. in another key district battle.