By Kyle Roberts
WEST MONROE, La. — Despite a tight game through the first few innings, the West Monroe Rebels (22-7, 9-0 District 2-5A) put up multiple runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to beat Ruston (23-9, 7-2 District 2-5A) 9-4 at Shelby Aulds Memorial Field.
The Bearcats forced West Monroe senior pitcher and LSU-commit Bradyn Cuprit to throw 30 pitches in the top of the first inning alone with multiple quality at-bats, even taking an early 1-0 lead after junior Nolan Parnell hit a chopper to first, reaching safely and scoring senior Peyton Martin from second base after a steal.
Cuprit, however, would settle down and get comfortable, throwing a total of 6.0 innings and only needing 75 more pitches the rest of the way.
“Cuprit shoved on us tonight,” Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck said. “Sometimes, you have to tip your hat after getting beaten by the better guy out there. That was probably our most strike-outs by looking all year (four out of 10 total thrown by Cuprit). He had his stuff tonight. He has shown at times to struggle with command. And he did a little bit early on, but he settled back in, and we just couldn’t get anything going.”
After Ruston’s 1-0 lead, West Monroe answered with one run in the bottom of the first and then two more in the bottom of the second for a 3-1 lead going into the top of the third. The Rebels added another run in the bottom of the third to go up 4-1.
Ruston, however, would get two runs across the plate in the top of the fourth after junior Hudson Wood singled to left field, scoring both senior Jake Simmons and freshman Dalen Powell to cut the lead to 4-3.
In return, the Rebels got two more in the bottom of the fifth and three more in the bottom of the sixth to go up 9-3. The Bearcats got one final run on the board in the top of the seventh after senior Jake Tyler hit a sacrifice fly to center field and scored senior Caleb Hampton for the 9-4 final.
Bearcat sophomore Tyler Roach pitched 4.1 innings and struck out four Rebels. Wood led the team with two RBIs.
Ruston will host West Monroe tonight for the second game of the district series finale. The Bearcats will start senior David Griep on the mound and will likely go up against senior Andrew Ferguson for the Rebels.
“I told our team that we have to respond,” Beck said. “They have another really good pitcher, but so do we. We’re playing at our place, and we’ve got to learn how to get over that really, really quick in a three-game series. This is a playoff-like series for us, and we have to respond and show up at our place, put a good game out there and try to win it.”
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