By T. Scott Boatright
It took the Choudrant Aggies a little while to get their offensive engine rolling Tuesday evening in a District 2-B home game against Downsville.
But the Aggies kicked things up into cruise control in the third inning and gradually pulled away for a 11-1 win over the Demons to begin their district season with a win.
That was the 10th straight win for the Aggies, now 17-4 overall, and their 12th over the last 13 game, including a 24-0 home shellacking of Union Parish on Monday.
Downsville struck first in the top of the opening stanza before the Aggies tied things up in the bottom of the second inning.
Mike Jones led off that inning with a single before being advanced on a pair of groundouts and then tying the game on a throwing error committed by the Demons.
The Aggies led off the bottom of the third inning with the top of their order at the plate, and produced five runs in the process.
Landon Hennen started things off with a single and then stole second before Bryce McGuire and Gavin Murphy turned in walks to load the bases.
The Aggies then plated runs off of a fielder’s choice and two batters being hit by pitches before Eli Callender’s sacrifice fly to centerfield pushed across Jones for his second run to put the Aggies on top 5-1.
The Aggies again led off the bottom of the fourth inning with the top of their order at the plate and this time answered with another three runs.
Hennen and McGuire both reached base on walks to start things off before Murphy singled in Henned before Kaden Bradsahw blasted a two-run double to score McGuire and Murphy.
Choudrant pushed its lead to 10-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning after McGuire singled and scored on a Murphy double before Bradshaw knocked in Murphy.
TJ Smith was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the sixth before scoring the winning run on a walk-off single.
“We’re going pretty good right,” Antley said. “Last night Union had trouble throwing strikes and we hit the ball well when they did. We don’t hit a lot of runs but just try to score with hard-hit balls.
“It’s good to get off to a good district start and it was good to get some of the younger guys in there last night.”
McGuire picked up the win for the Aggies with Hennen replacing him in the top of the fifth and striking out five of the seven batters he faced.
“It probably wasn’t necessary to make that (pitching) change but we’ll probably come back Saturday and pitch both against Claiborne Christian on Saturday, so we’re just keeping them fresh,” Antley said. “Eli and Colton (Smith) will pitch for us Friday.”
The Aggies will take on Downsville again on Friday with the Demons designated as the home team because their field is undergoing work.
