Oilers rally in ninth inning to win 9-8
By Tom Dodge
NEW IBERIA – Tyler Fontenot slid in safely after a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth as the Eunice Oilers grabbed a 9-8 win over the Opelousas Indians in an elimination game at the American Legion Southwest Sub-Regionals at Acadian Ball Park on Friday.
The win keeps the Oilers' playoff hopes alive as they continue play Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against the loser of Friday night's Abbeville-Delhomme game.
With the game tied 8-8, the Oilers loaded the bases when Fontenot singled, Kendall Sam was intentionally walked and Ethan Moser drew another base-on-balls to set up Fontenot’s game-winning slide to the plate.
“We just wanted to win this one so we could play another one,” Eunice coach Danny Soileau said of the playoff win. “We were staying loose and win or lose we were going to have fun. We played relaxed.”
Opelousas opened the game with a 1-0 lead when lead-off batter Kyle Vidrine reached on an error and scored on Caleb Castille’s sacrifice RBI.
Eunice grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the first inning when Mitchell Fuselier singled and Caleb Deshotel drew a walk off Indian starter Christian Boutte.
Fuselier scored on Stuart Turner’s sacrifice RBI, while Deshotel crossed home plate on an Indian error.
The Oilers increased their lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the second when Casey Charlie singled and Sam was hit by a pitch to open the rally.
Charlie scored on Zach Person’s RBI sacrifice bunt, while Sam touched home plate on Deshotel’s fielder’s choice.
Opelousas closed the gap to 4-2 in the top of the third when Castille singled and scored on a sacrifice by Dustin Ardoin.
The Indians battled back in the top of the fourth frame when Nick Artall reached on an error and scored on Vidrine’s double to right field.
Opelousas tied the game 4-4 when Vidrine scored on Seth Jarrell’s two-out RBI, but the inning ended when Jarrell was tagged out at third base trying to move to the corner on the play.
Opelousas grabbed a two-run lead in the top of the fifth inning when Kyle Arnaud singled and Dustin Ardoin blasted a home run over the left field wall.
The Indians seemed poised for the win in the top of the sixth when Ardoin singled and scored on a single by Artall and Vidrine walked and scored on an error.
Trailing 8-4, the Oilers began their comeback with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning when Sam was hit by a pitch and scored when Fuselier reached on an error.
Fuselier then scored on the fifth Indian miscue when Deshotel’s grounder to the shortstop was mishandled.
Eunice added two more runs to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth; Ethan Moser singled and scored when Fuselier reached on another error.
Fuselier then brought the Oilers even when he crossed home plate on the Indians’ sixth miscue of the game.
While the Eunice offense was beginning to heat up as the game moved along, Fruge moved from third base to the mound to help seal the win for the Oilers.
Starting pitcher Turner lasted four innings as he walked three and allowed seven hits. Reliever Chris McCoy fanned one, walked two and allowed two runs on two hits before Fruge scattered three hits over 3 1/3 shut out innings.
“We had a total of 11 errors in two games and our opponents accounted for 12 so you can tell everyone was booting the ball around,” Soileau said. “The mistakes get magnified over nine innings.
“We were expecting a slugfest every game,” the coach said. “Most of the time we can hit well enough to slug with anybody.”