Eunice Juniors stumble at Notre Dame
By John Burson
Sports Writer
CROWLEY - After two impressive victories and three solid innings in game three, the Eunice Junior Oilers ran into a bump in the road here Wednesday night at Miller Stadium.
Holding a 3-0 lead over Notre Dame heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Junior Oilers imploded in that frame, allowing seven runs to the Pioneers. The Eunice team never recovered, falling 13-3.
The Junior Oilers (2-1) had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Tyler Fontenot doubled, and courtesy runner Lane David eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Eunice added two more runs in their second inning. Alex Lee singled and Jonathan Tucker singled to put runners at first and third.
Lee scored when Pioneer pitcher Kade Courville committed an error. Connor Cortina added a single and Tucker scored when Jacob Fontenot reached on an error.
But the young Oilers failed to add to their lead, stranding runners at second and third. Eunice left two more runners on base in the third inning.
Meanwhile, Oilers’ pitcher Tyler Fontenot faced the minimum number of Pioneer batters through three innings. The Pioneers had one runner erased in the second and another erased in the third when they were thrown out attempting to steal.
The fourth inning proved to be Eunice’s undoing. Fontenot opened the inning by hitting the first two batters with pitches. Fontenot did induce a ground ball from Mitch Corzine, but the ball was misplayed for an error.
Two more errors on ground balls produced two runs to cut the Eunice lead to 3-2. A single by Pete Petijean tied the game, and yet another error on the same play brought home another run to put the Pioneers on top.
Two additional errors and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Courville completed the scoring in the inning with the Pioneers leading 7-3.
The Pioneers would take advantage of seven walks in their fifth inning, along with base hits by Ricky Stoma and Luke Bourgeois to close out the game with six runs to end the game by way of the mercy rule.
Tyler Fontenot, who took the loss, deserved a better fate. In four innings, he allowed only two hits and one earned run.
He walked one, hit two batters, and struck out two. Matthew Bari and Jacob Fontenot finished up on the mound for the Junior Oilers, each retiring one batter in the fifth.
Next action for the Junior Oilers is Monday when they host St. Louis of Lake Charles in a 6:30 start. On Wednesday, Eunice will host Moss Bluff at 6:30 p.m.