By Kyle Roberts
PINEVILLE, La. — Sometimes, the hardest ask in sports is having to compete again after an emotional win the previous night.
But the Ruston Bearcats (22-8, 7-1 District 2-5A) did just that, winning 6-2 over Pineville (11-14, 2-6 District 2-5A) on the road — thanks in large part to senior David Griep’s performance on the mound with 11 strikeouts.
“What a big win for our kids, our coaches and our school,” Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck said. “To be honest, I was really worried about how we would respond after the injury to (sophomore John Parker) Moak. But our kids were awesome. J.P. came to batting practice today before we left and saw all the kids — he was doing good. Matter of fact, he served our pregame meal, too. It just tells you what kind of kid that he is, and he looks good. He was rooting us on to come down here.
“We were really loose tonight, and I thought we would be just a little bit tight from everything that happened and we weren’t.”
After a scoreless first for both teams, Pineville took an early lead in the bottom of the second inning to go up 1-0. The Bearcats would answer to tie the game in the top of the fourth inning with junior Nolan Parnell scoring from third during an at-bat for junior Lander Smith.
Ruston would add three more runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead after junior Jackson Lee hit a triple to center field to score junior Hudson Wood from first base for a 2-1 score. Two batters later, Parnell would bring Lee home on a fly ball to left, and senior Carter Love would single to center field afterward, scoring Parnell for a 4-1 lead.
After Pineville cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Ruston put up two insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning — first by senior Jake Tyler on a sacrifice to center to score Wood, and then a sacrifice bunt by Love to score Lee from third for the 6-2 final score.
Griep was the only Ruston pitcher to see action tonight in the complete game win. Both Parnell and Wood registered multiple hits, while Love drove in two runs.
“After Pineville jumped on us for their early lead, our kids never wavered,” Beck said. “David was great with his 11 strikeouts and one walk. We put enough runs together at the plate to get the win. And anytime you can go on the road in a ball game and get a win, that’s what you’ve got to do. So I’m really excited about our kids in the last two games. They were close games, and we’ve got to learn how to win those. I’ll continue to say that because the playoffs are going to be like that.”
With the regular season drawing to a close in the next week, Beck is pleased with his team heading down the final stretch with Parkway on Monday, April 7, and a three-game series looming with West Monroe.
“When you have pitching like our starting pitching has been the last two games, I think we can play with anybody in the state,” Beck said. “So we’ll just have to protect the ball on defense, and put some good innings together on offense and have a chance to win at the end. That’s kind of our motto, and we’ve been able to do that back-to-back — I’m really proud of our kids after dropping (the two games against Alexandria Senior High and Ouachita Christian). It’s a really good response from us, and we’re going to enjoy the weekend.”
