Oilers, Blue Jays battle in finale
By Tom Dodge
The American Legion season was a split for bragging rights between the Oilers and the Blue Jays with each team winning at the opposing park.
The Blue Jays won the first match-up 4-1 on June 17, while the Oilers returned the favor Tuesday night with an identical 4-1 score.
With the win, the Oilers finished District Seven East play at 6-4, while the Blue Jays close at 4-6.
The Oilers could still be in the playoffs as Jennings, Crowley and St. Landry Bank all have rain-outs to make up to determine the final standings.
“Jennings could end up ahead of us,” Oiler head coach Danny Soileau said of the bottleneck for the qualifying top two teams. “We could end up tied with Crowley (5-3) or the Indians and if we end up tied I hope for a one-game playoff.”
According state chairman A. J. Jones, Jennings and Crowley are tied for first place in the District and play Monday evening at 7 p.m. at Miller Stadium in Crowley.
The winner will be the district champions and the loser would have to play a tie breaker with the Oilers for the runner-up spot.
Those are the only teams that have a chance of advancing to Sub-Regionals to be held in New Iberia at Acadian Ball Park beginning on July 17 at 9 a.m.
In the early going Tuesday it was a pitcher’s duel between Blue Jay starter Wesley Richard and Oilers’ ace Austin Young.
Richard allowed two singles and a walk in the first four innings, but Blue Jay catcher Taylor Eval nailed two steal attempts as Richard recorded four strikeouts.
Young gave up a single and a walk to the first three batters but then settled down to retire 10 in a row over the first four frames, including five straight strike outs.
“It is hard to play these guys because they are such good friends,” Soileau said of cross-town match-up. “It is hard to get them to not notice who is in the other dugout.”
The Oilers finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fifth when Brett Baldwin walked and pinch runner Ethan Moser scored on an errant throw on Tyler Fontenot’s hit.
The Oilers pushed ahead 2-0 in the top of the sixth when Kaleb Deshotel singled to left field and scored on a sacrifice by Stuart Turner.
The Oilers added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh, taking advantage of two hitbatsmen and a walk to load the bases.
Mitchell Fuselier hit a sacrifice off reliever Trevor Hargroder to score Kendall Sam, while Turner followed with a single to plate Jacob Fontenot for a 4-0 advantage.
The Blue Jays avoided the shutout when Tyler Rodriguez singled to right field and pinch runner Taylor Wallett scored on a two-out single from Mac Manuel.
Young recorded the complete-game win as he scattered four hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.
“It is great when he can just concentrate on pitching,” Soileau said of his pitcher.
“Since we put a designated hitter in his spot, all he has to worry about is pitching. And as usual, he did a great job for us again tonight.”
“We ran ourselves out with base running mistakes,” Blue Jay head coach Tré Brown said. “We made too many errors in the field.
“We made one outfield error, but we did a terrible job running ourselves out of innings.
“They gave us every opportunity to come back and get in the game, we just didn’t take advantage of it.”
In their first season, the Jays finished below .500, including three straight losses to end the summer.
But Brown said that slump could be a positive when the high school season comes back around.
“This reminds them that they have to work,” he commented. “You can’t just come out and do it, you have to work for it.”
While the regular season is over for the seniors, junior legion play continues with road games to Crowley on Tuesday and a rain-out game Thursday against Notre Dame.