By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Make that seven straight “dubs” for the Diamond ‘Cats.
Coming off a sweep to start district play over Ouachita and a key non-district win over Natchitoches Central in the middle, Ruston High (13-6, 2-0 District 2-5A) now comes into the second half of its schedule with momentum– now having already grabbed two more wins than last year’s campaign.
Bearcat head coach Bryan Beck believes his team’s success can be traced back to a weekend tournament played in South Louisiana, where the Bearcats had struggled to put together multiple wins back-to-back.
“If you rewind everything, I take it back to when we were down in Baton Rouge,” Beck said. “We had a big win against Dutchtown on a Friday night on their field, which is a hard place to play with their crowd and kids. We came back the next day and just really didn’t handle that win well and played really bad against East Ascension. And then we just shook up the lineup and got out there and beat Archbishop Shaw right after that in the second game of a doubleheader. I think that was the defining moment was– I challenged our kids and said “Look, this game’s really hard. We’re going to lose some games, but we’re going to lose playing it the right way.” I told them at the time that we just don’t know how to win yet, and we’re going to learn how to win after a win, and we’re going learn how to win after a loss.
“I think what you’re seeing is that the kids are really just playing a lot more relaxed and with a lot of confidence. “I told somebody else this weekend that this coaching staff is young — it’s our first time together, first time around the kids. And it’s the middle of March and everybody’s comfortable with each other. Everybody knows that the expectations are the same within our staff and in our locker room, and those kids are just going out and playing really good ball right now.”
Ruston won its sixth of seven straight Friday night against the Chiefs 5-1 after a gem of a game on the mound by senior David Griep, who threw 6.2 innings and struck out seven batters.
“He was awesome,” Beck said of Griep. “He struggled a little bit in the first inning, but we were just patient with him. And (pitching coach) Doc Wilkerson does a really good job with those guys and with me, just telling me to relax and have patience. We’ve got to have our starting pitching be able to go four or five innings or deeper for us to win. And (Doc) is kind of the calm in the storm for our dugout and does a tremendous job with our pitching staff and those kids, and David battled through a little early first inning stuff, and then he settled in.
“He almost went the distance — we had to pull him just because of a legal pitch count, or we would have left him in there. I’m really happy for him.”
The Bearcats struck first Friday with a two-run inning in the bottom of the first, starting with sophomore Dillion Williams singling on a one-out line drive to center to score senior Carter Love from second base. Senior Jake Simmons would ground to first base in the next at-bat, scoring sophomore John Parker Moak from third base for a 2-0 lead.
Ruston added another three runs in the bottom of the second inning, starting with senior Peyton Martin hitting a ground ball single into right field and scoring junior Hudson Wood from first. Junior Jackson Lee would double into center field and bring in Martin with one out two batters later. Finally, junior Lander Smith singled into center field and scored Lee to put Ruston up 5-0.
The Chiefs would finally get a run in the top of the seventh, but it would not be enough as Ruston won 5-1. NCHS finished the game with five hits and four errors.
Natchitoches Central started senior Adam Guillet on the mound, a Louisiana Tech signee that the Bearcats were able to get nine hits off of for the game on Student Day, where the fans made the atmosphere as close to a playoff game as possible.
“They had two big lefties,” Beck said of the Chiefs. “They have an Alabama commit and then a Tech commit (in Guillet). For our scouting report, I really felt like Guillet was the better pitcher with a three-pitch mix — just really good stuff. I’ve seen him pitch in the summers with my oldest son. And I just knew it would be a playoff atmosphere. Man, our students showed up, and the crowd showed up. We got after it in the first few innings, and we put some runs on the board really quick. I really think we shell-shocked them, to be honest with you. But you’ve got to give (Guillet) credit — he’s going to Louisiana Tech for a reason. He settled in as well. We banged his fastball around and then he started you know going to some of his off-speed stuff and we slowed down a little bit.”
Beck said he scheduled a tough team like NCHS in between two district games to try to prepare the Bearcats for a playoff series.
“Those are the games that we scheduled for a reason wedged in between two district games,” Beck said. “We wanted to try to simulate some sort of three game series, which is our playoff system now, and have three starters and some bullpen guys. We handled it really really well and that was a big win for us.”
Lee would go three-for-three at the plate with an RBI in the contest.
On Saturday, Ruston crushed district foe Ouachita 17-0 on Senior Day, getting a run-rule win after the top of the third inning after a 15-run bottom of the first.
After Lee opened with a lead off double, he would the steal third and score after an error by the shortstop. Williams would score Martin with an RBI single in the next at-bat for a 2-0 lead. After a pair of walks loaded the bases, senior Kolby Sonnier singled into right field on a pop fly and scored Williams and Simmons to go up 4-0. Senior Caleb Hampton added three more runs on a loaded-bases single into right field, scoring Tyler, Powell and Parnell for a 7-0 lead.
Martin would double two batters later to score both Hampton and Lee, while Williams would double in the next at-bat to score Martin and put the Bearcats up 10-0. Tyler then his a line drive into center with two outs to score Williams to go up 11-0. After Love walked in the the at-bat, Sonnier singled into right field and scored both Tyler and sophomore Michael Brisco to go up 13-0.
Parnell would get hit by a pitch next, setting Hampton up to single into right field and score Powell. Finally, Lee singled into center field and scored Parnell, putting Ruston up 15-0 going into the top of the second inning.
After three up and down for the Lions, Powell would score on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second to put the ‘Cats up 16-0. Finally, senior Talan Billberry hit into a fielder’s choice to score Brisco to put Ruston up 17-0.
Love and senior Eli Crawford pitched a combined three innings and gave up no runs or hits.
Beck said his goal was to get as many of the seniors involved in the lienup and in the field.
“We got to start most of them,” Beck said. “(Hampton) got his first career start and had three RBIs, so I’m really happy for him. Tyler started for us in the DH spot. Love got the start on the mound, and Crawford closed it out for us. We got Billberry a bat in there, and we put (senior Sam) Specht in at second base. And lo and behold, the pitch pitch of the third inning, they hit a chopper to (Specht) and he got the put out at first.”
The seniors honored were Martin, Sonnier, Crawford, Love, Griep, Hampton, Billberry, Tyler, Simmons, and Specht. Former baseball player and all-state offensive lineman Sam Nations was honored for his help in the press box.
“You literally couldn’t have written the script better yesterday,” Beck said. “And then our booster club bought crawfish and jambalaya for everybody afterwards. The sun came out after the thunderstorms in the morning and it was awesome. It was good to celebrate those seniors. And Sam Nations — he played baseball his freshman year, came back out for his sophomore year and decided to hang it up. He’s been in the press box ever since for us running our music and our public address. I like it when kids are involved, and he does a really good job, and we honored him as well. It was a picture perfect day.”
The Bearcats return to action Tuesday against Sterlington on the road, who is currently at the top of the Non-Select, Division III power rankings.
“It’s another really good baseball team for us,” Beck said. “We’re up for it and ready to go.”
