By Kyle Roberts
The Ruston High Bearcats finished out the regular season Monday at home for Senior Night with an extra-inning 3-2 win over the Mangham Dragons.
The Bearcats end the 2023 campaign 21-11 and have earned the No. 19 overall seed in the playoffs.
“We honored ten seniors,” Ruston head coach Zack Smith said. “We brought them and their families on the field. I really appreciate all ten of them for the contributions they’ve given to the program; not only me for two year, but for the four years in the Ruston baseball program. We really appreciate everything they do.”
The Bearcats took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first before Mangham tied in the top of the third. Ruston answered with a run in the bottom of the third before Mangham tied the game again in the top of the fifth.
After going into extra innings, senior Bryant Bennett drew a base-loaded walk for the final go-ahead score.
Bennett was one of the seniors recognized along with R.J. Brown, Chase Clendenen, Wade Crawford, Dyson Fields, Breydon Freeman, Cade Patterson, nick Robinson, Justin Szymanski, and J.R. Tollett.
In the previous week, Ruston failed to get any wins after losing a midweek contest to OCS 7-6, and then two to West Monroe — first 5-4 on Thursday and then 8-1 on Friday.
“We really just didn’t hit as well as I thought we should have,” Smith said. “When you’re playing great teams, you have to pitch well, play good defense and get timely hits. We just didn’t do that last week. And now headed into the playoffs, we better be able to do those three things.”
Ruston will now prepare to take on No. 14 Destrahan on the road with the first pitch coming Friday, April 21, at 4 p.m.
