By Kyle Roberts
BOSSIER CITY, La. — Thirteen runs and fourteen hits will often do the trick in baseball.
And it helps to have a 4-for-4 night at the plate by senior shortstop Peyton Martin.
That was certainly the case Monday night as the Ruston High Bearcats (23-8, 7-1 District 2-5A) took down the Parkway Panthers (10-14, 5-7 District 1-5A) by a final score of 13-3 in the final non-district matchup of the 2025 regular season.
“Big win for us to come over here and beat Parkway,” Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck said. “We needed to throw a lot of guys on the mound to get ready for the West Monroe series this weekend, and that’s what we were able to do. And we had a big night at the plate, too. We brought the kids in for a Sunday practice, which we don’t do very much, but we felt like with a Monday game we needed to be focused up to take care of what we needed to do. It was a really good practice, even though it was kind of cold and misty yesterday. The kids responded really well in this Monday night game — we didn’t play really well last Tuesday against OCS.
“Peyton had a really big night for us, and (senior Jake) Simmons did, too — he’s really dialed in right now. If he can get rolling like we know he can, it’s going to be fun in the next few weeks for us. All around, a good team win, and a lot of arms got to throw for us. It was really encouraging to see what our bullpen could do for us in a live setting. They needed that work, and they got it in.”
Ruston hopped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first after junior Nolan Parnell singled on a ground ball to left and scored junior Jackson Lee from second base. Junior Lander Smith would get a single into left field two batters later to then score Parnell.
After neither team scored in the second inning, the Bearcats added three more runs in the top of the third inning for a 5-0 lead — all with two outs. Senior Carter Love started by reaching on an error with a fly ball to score Parnell from first base. Smith followed with a ground ball to shortstop and reached on an error to then score Parnell. Finally, Simmons rounded out the scoring in the inning with a double to right field to score Smith.
After Parkway got its first run of night in the bottom of the third inning, Ruston added another three-spot in the top of the fourth inning, beginning with a triple by Lee to score sophomore Michael Brisco from first base with one out. Martin registered one of his four hits on the night with a single to score Lee to put Ruston up 7-1. Martin would then score on a steal to home plate at Smith’s at-bat and extended Ruston’s lead to 8-1.
Parkway would add another run in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 8-2 — Ruston, however, then added a run to answer in the top of the fifth when junior Kenden Freeman singled to center field to score Simmons for a 9-2 score.
The Bearcats then added four more runs in the top of the sixth after senior Jake Tyler singled to center field and scored both freshman Dalen Powell and Love for an 11-2 lead. Simmons then tripled in the next at-bat to score sophomore Davis DeMoss and put the Bearcats up 12-2 with one out. Finally, junior Hudson Wood hit a sacrifice fly to score Simmons and put Ruston up 13-2.
Parkway added one run in the bottom of the sixth — however, it would not be enough as Ruston got the run-rule victory 13-3.
The Bearcats pitched a total of eight hurlers from the mound, only surrendering a total of six hits.
Aside from Martin, Simmons added three hits including a double and a triple. Lee also had a multiple-hit ballgame.
Ruston returns to action Thursday, April 10, at West Monroe to begin the final District 2-5A series of the regular season.
“We’ll get back to practice for a couple of days and get ready for the toughest series of the year for us in West Monroe,” Beck said. “It will be a good one, and we’re ready for it. And the kids will be ready for it, too.”
