Pios rally past Gents

CROWLEY – At the beginning of the 2008 prep baseball season, most prognosticators had Crowley High and Rayne tabbed as the top two teams in District 5-AAA.

Notre Dame, the league’s dominant team over the years, was almost an afterthought due to the fact that the Pios returned just one starter.

But with a wealth of young talent and the leadership of their four seniors, the Pios have overcome all odds and now own at least a share of the league title after a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Crowley on Thursday.

The Pios (15-11, 6-1) can clinch the outright title Tuesday when they travel to Church Point to take on the Bears in the district finale for both teams.

“You know, early on, everything we kind of saw, read and heard, people were pretty much kind of writing us off,” said Notre Dame coach Tim Robichaux. “I believed in them (Pios) and the kids believed in themselves.

“We knew tonight that it wasn’t going to be easy. We knew it would be a close one, just like the Rayne game.”

Robichaux was right.

His Pios trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning and were on the verge of only their second league loss.

Unfortunately for the Gents, that’s when the wheels fell off.

Ryan Leonards started thing off when he reached base on an error. A sacrifice bunt attempt was popped up for the first out, but Bryant Gilbert followed with a single to left-centerfield, putting the tying run at third base. Gilbert then stole second base.

Matt Savoie, who went 2-for-3 on the night with two RBI, then stepped to the plate and hit a chopper to second that was misplayed, allowing Leonards to score the tying run.

After the bobble at second, an errant throw to first allowed Gilbert to score the winning run.

“We got behind early and we made a lot of work for ourselves. But we’ve showed a few times during the course of the year that we will fight and come back,” said Robichaux. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell them all season about playing all seven innings and not quitting. That’s what they did tonight and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

Overall, the Gents committed four errors on the night, those leading to three unearned runs. Still, CHS coach Christian Doughty said miscues weren’t what cost his team the game.

“I didn’t feel that the errors beat us,” said Doughty. “That might have been the go-ahead in terms of the scoreboard, but the bottom line was, we had a meltdown in the third inning and that’s what did it for us.”

The Gents led 4-0 until the third when the Pios put two runners on with no outs courtesy of a walk and a single to right by Ryan Leonards. Ryan Roger then loaded the bases when his sacrifice bunt attempt was mishandled.

Gilbert drove in the first run of the inning on a sacrifice fly before Savoie singled to center, plating Leonards.

The Pios cut the lead to 4-3 when D.J. Welter grounded out to second with one out.

“We made a number of mistakes tonight,” said Doughty. “We had some miss pitches again that were left over the plate; we made several errors in the field and we didn’t do what we needed to do at the plate. We win as a team and we lose as a team and tonight WAS a team loss.”

One glaring statistic for the Gents was their number of hits: they had just four hits on the night. And of the four, they got three in the first two innings.

“We fell right back into the same situation that we had with them (Notre Dame) in the first game, too many flyouts,” said Doughty. “If I’m not mistaken, we had seven starters with flyouts. That just can’t happen. You’re not going to be successful against anybody like that. We just didn’t take care of our business.”

Gilbert picked up the victory, his fourth of the year, despite falling behind 4-0 in the first inning on two hits and two walks. In all, he gave up four hits and three walks while striking out two.

“Bryan did a good job overcoming a bad inning,” said Robichaux of Gilbert’s struggles in the opening frame. “That goes back to what we talked about earlier today about overcoming adversity.”

Doughty also praised Gilbert’s performance.

“I thought Gilbert did a heck of a job tonight,” said Doughty. “After having that bad first inning, I thought he did an incredible job. For a young guy like that to settle down after a rocky start, I thought he did terrific.”

Jake Trahan suffered the loss, giving up five runs on five hits and four walks. He struck out one.

Seth Beglis led the Gents with a single and a triple; Kyron Benoit had a triple and Trahan had one hit.

Savoie was the only Pio with multiple hits. He was followed by Gilbert with a single and one RBI and Leonards and Tim Vondenstein each had a single.

The Gents will close out district play Tuesday when they host Northwest at 4 p.m.