By Kyle Roberts
ALEXANDRIA, La. — It was a heartbreaker in Central Louisiana in the bottom of the seventh for Ruston.
After six shut-out innings from Ruston’s pitching, the Alexandria Senior High Trojans finally put two runs on the board with two outs in the bottom of the final inning for a 2-1 win over the Bearcats (20-7, 6-1 District 2-5A) and snapped the Ruston winning streak after 14 consecutive games.
“Hats off to ASH starting pitcher Clayton Doyal,” Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck said. “He pitched great, but so did our guys (senior David Griep, senior Carter Love, sophomore Peyton Nations and junior Jackson Lee). We just couldn’t find a way to get more runs across, and that’s on me. I am extremely proud of these kids and how they have competed the entire month of March.”
After scoreless innings for the first four, Ruston got a run across the plate in the top of the fifth inning after Lee hit a sacrifice fly into right field to score freshman Dalen Powell and put the Bearcats up 1-0. Neither team would score again until the Trojans got the two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Griep got the start and pitched 4.1 innings and struck out three batters.
The loss is the first for Ruston since March 1, when Ruston dropped the top half of a double-header. Since then, the Bearcats went on a tear through both district and non-district play.
“I told them tonight after the game they having nothing to hang their heads about — the new season starts Tuesday against OCS, and we look at it like we are 0-0,” Beck said. “We will take a couple of much needed days off after playing eight games in 10 days, and then we will reload and get back after it.”
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