By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — The streak continues for the Ruston High Bearcats.
Following a 9-3 win for Ruston High (15-6, 3-0 District 2-5A) over Neville (8-11, 1-2 District 2-5A), the Bearcats have amassed a nine-game winning streak, relying on good defense and timely hits from the batter’s box.
“Anytime you can get a win against Neville High School, it’s a good win,” Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck said. “That’s a big deal for us at Ruston High. I told our kids that you can throw the records out when we play each other. It’s going to be a battle. It was a tight game for more of the night. And midway through, we were able to string some good innings together to get the win.”
The Bearcats opened up with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after senior Peyton Martin singled into right field to score junior Jackson Lee from first base.
Neville would tie the game 1-1 in the top of the second inning. The Bearcats, however, would add three runs in the bottom half of the inning, beginning with Lee getting a sacrifice fly to center field to score junior Nolan Parnell from third base. Martin would hit into a fielder’s choice in the next at-bat to score senior Jake Simmons, and junior Lander Smith would then ground out to shortstop to score sophomore Michael Brisco for a 4-1 lead.
After Neville responded with two runs in the top of the fourth inning to cut the lead to 4-3, Ruston added two more runs in the bottom of the inning, beginning with sophomore John Parker Moak getting a triple into right field and scoring Martin. Sophomore Dillion Williams followed in the next at-bat with a double into center field to score Moak for a 6-3 lead.
Ruston would add three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach for the Tigers. Williams would start the scoring with one out after singling to center field and scoring senior Carter Love. Parnell would get a single two batter’s later and score both Williams from third after a stolen base and freshman Dalen Powell for the 9-3 win.
Senior Talan Billberry pitched 3.1 innings while striking out four batters for the win with sophomore Peyton Nations coming in for relief.
“Our pitching just really kept the game close,” Beck said. “We just couldn’t get timely hits early to try to break the game open. And we’ve got to have those to win these kinds of games.”
Both Williams and Parnell finished with multiple hits for Ruston.
“Williams is really seeing the ball well for us right now– he’s one of our hardest hitters,” Beck said. “He hit the ball well for us tonight.”
Ruston and Neville will square up again tonight at 6:00 p.m. in Monroe and then back in Ruston Saturday at 2 p.m.
