By Kyle Roberts
MONROE, La. — The Bryan Beck era is off to a nice start after Monday night.
After taking an early lead and never looking back, Ruston High (1-0) beat the Oak Grove Tigers (0-1) 7-3 on a chilly afternoon at Lou St. Amant Field on the campus of the University of Louisiana-Monroe to win its 2025 season opener.
“Man, we’re really excited for our kids and our coaches,” new head coach Beck said. “We kind of got thrown around the yard a little bit on Saturday (at the Bayou Jamb). We played two three-inning games, and I felt like we good for three and then not good for three. But after that, I told the kids that we had a ball game against a real one in Oak Grove. They’re four-time defending state champions, and they’re a really good baseball team. They’re going to win a lot of games this year.
“We had a lot of guys show up to a voluntary practice (on Sunday), and that was good to see. We’re still trying to figure out who we are offensively right now. We play some small ball, and we got some good things going for us.”
Bearcat senior outfielder Jake Simmons led Ruston with three hits and four runs batted in after singling in the top of the first, fifth and sixth innings, while as a team, Ruston finished with nine hits.
“Jake is our bell cow on offense,” Beck said. “He’s the guy you want on the plate when the game is on the line and when there are runners on base. I’m really happy for him. His expectations on himself are really high, and he wants to get a hit every single time. That’s the kind of guy you want up there when you have runners in scoring position, and he was able to do that tonight for us.”
The Bearcats also put Oak Grove in some tough spots with some good bunts and forced fielding errors by the Tigers.
“Those were our big innings when we started to put the ball on the ground in the bunt game,” Beck said. “They made some bad fielding plays, and it really got us going.”
The Bearcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning off hits by both Simmons and junior Lander Smith. Simmons hit a ball into left field to score senior Peyton Martin, while Smith hit a liner to left scoring Simmons.
Ruston added three more in the top of the fifth after junior Jackson Lee scored off of an Oak Grove error following a bunt by Martin. Simmons then singled again on the next at-bat to score Martin, while Smith’s bunt led to another Tiger error, scoring Simmons.
In the top of the seventh, Simmons connected on another line drive and scored both sophomore Davis DeMoss and Martin. Taking a 7-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, Oak Grove was able to get three runs, but it would not be enough.
Due to a rainy forecast near the end of the week, Beck said that he wanted to try to preserve as many pitching arms as possible and elected to send out seven different pitchers throughout the night. Collectively, the committee gave up on four hits and three runs on the night.
Senior lefty David Griep started the night and was credited with the win after the Bearcats got up 2-0 after the first.
Ruston will return to action for a weekend series against Haughton. Due to the forecast, the dates and times are still in flux.
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