Oilers hold off Seminoles

By John Burson

Sports Writer

The old baseball adage that hitting is contagious proved accurate for the Eunice Oilers Thursday night in American Legion District 7-East play at the Eunice High School baseball field.

The Senior Oilers trailed the Opelousas Seminoles by a 4-0 margin with two out in the third inning before the Oiler bats came alive. By the time the third Seminole pitcher of the inning was able to record the third out, the Oilers had sent 16 batters to the plate and pounded out eight hits to take a 12-3 lead.

That inning proved decisive to the game’s outcome as the Oilers would hold on late for a 13-11 victory.

The win evened the district record of the Oilers at 1-1. The Seminoles dropped to 1-1 in district play with the loss.

Logan Stelly, the first of three Seminole pitchers, suffered the loss. He worked two and two-thirds innings, allowing six hits and seven earned runs. Nick Escoline and Rob Fontenot also saw mound duty for the Seminoles.

Eunice used four pitchers in the contest, with starter Chris McCoy working into the fourth. He scattered six hits, giving up five earned runs and fanning one.

Zac Person relieved McCoy. Person pitched two and one-third innings, allowing two hits and four earned runs. He issued four walks and struck out three.

Brett Baldwin worked one-third of an inning, tagging out a runner at home plate who tried to score on a wild pitch with two out in the sixth inning. Casey Charlie picked up the save in the seventh, despite giving up two hits and two runs. before retiring the side.

The Seminoles opened the scoring with two runs in the second, led by Brandon Devillier’s run-scoring single. The Opelousas team added two runs in the third on Shaq Belson’s mammoth home run.

After Stelly had retired the first two Eunice batters in the third inning, the Oiler bats came alive as Charlie ripped a single to right field and stole second base. Stelly then issued walks to Tyler Fontenot and Jacque Fruge to load the bases.

Baldwin came up big with a three-run double to cut the Seminoles’ lead to 4-3. Baldwin would later score the tying run as Kendall Sam legged out an infield single with the throw eluding the first baseman.

Sam would steal second and score on Ethan Moser’s single. McCoy aided his own cause with a single before Stelly was relieved by Escoline.

The Seminole reliever experienced control problems issuing consecutive walks to Jacob Fontenot, Austin Young, and Charlie, forcing in two runs.

Tyler Fontenot ended Escoline’s night on the mound by ripping a three-run triple into right-center field, putting the Oilers up by a 10-4 margin.

Fruge greeted reliever Fontenot with a run-scoring single. Baldwin’s single would score Fruge with the inning’s 12th run.

The Seminoles didn’t quit, however, thanks to the effort of Nick Talovich, who blasted a solo home run in the fourth and a three-run homer in the fifth.

Eunice scored its 13th run in the fourth as Moser singled, stole second, and scored on Jacob Fontenot’s single.

Opelousas kept pecking away at the Eunice lead, though, with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh, before Charlie recorded the final out. James Fontenot’s two-run double plated both of the seventh inning runs.

Moser led the Eunice offensive attack with three hits. Fruge, Baldwin, and Sam added two hits apiece as the Oilers pounded out 14 hits.

Talovich’s two homers paced the Seminoles. Neil Hebert and Ian Fontenot also added two hits.