By Kyle Roberts
The postseason outing for the Ruston High School Bearcats was shorter than hoped for as the No. 14 Destrehan Wildcats took a 2-0 series win on Friday and Saturday by final scores of 8-1 and 11-3 in round one of the 2023 LHSAA Non-Select Division I playoffs.
Ruston finishes the 2023 season with a final record of 21-13.
“I thought we probably had our best week of practice going into this weekend,” Ruston head coach Zack Smith said. “Our coaching staff felt like we were prepared, and we just didn’t play well. First game, we didn’t hit as well as we needed to, and in the second game, we didn’t pitch well or play good defense, and we didn’t have timely hitting. We had some opportunities to score some runs, but we didn’t get the timely hitting. That’s what I’ve been stressing to them: we need to pitch well, play good defense and get timely hits in order to beat really good teams. We just didn’t do that, and there’s no excuses.”
In the Friday matchup, Ruston drew first blood with an RBI-single from senior Dyson Fields to score senior Cade Patterson in the top of the second inning. It would be the only run the Bearcats would score as the Wildcats scored eight unanswered runs in innings three, four, and five for the 8-1 win.
On Saturday, Destrehan shot out of the gate with five runs in the top of the first inning. Ruston answered with three runs in the bottom of the second, but it would not prove enough as Destrehan would extend the lead in the top of the third en route to the 11-3 victory.
For Smith, the long trip over the weekend has left little time to fully reflect on the season as a whole but still offered some initial thoughts on what he’ll remember about this year’s time.
“These kids always fought hard,” Smith said. “They never gave up and never quit. They fought in every game no matter what the score was. We’re obviously disappointed because our goal is to win games and go far in the playoffs and represent Ruston High baseball as best we can. We came up short; and that’s baseball.
“We appreciate the ten seniors and what they’ve done for us for four years, and everything they’ve given me for two years now. We’ve got to pick up the pieces and try to get better as a program and move forward.”
