By Kyle Roberts
BENTON, La. — Ruston High’s 2025 turnaround season drew to a close Saturday night after falling in the second game of a three-game series to the Benton Tigers 11-5 after losing 10-0 the previous night in the second round of the state playoffs.
And while every postseason loss comes with the sting of a season that has drawn to its close, there is plenty to celebrate for Ruston High: the team picked up more than double the win total from 2024’s campaign for the Bearcats in Ruston High head coach Bryan Beck’s inaugural season after winning 25 games. After missing the playoffs last year, the Bearcats hosted a first round series last weekend with Hahnville and completed the sweep to advance.
For Beck, it was all about creating an environment where the players were empowered to lead each other, beginning with the strong senior class of Peyton Martin, Kolby Sonnier, Eli Crawford, Samuel Specht, Carter Love, David Griep, Caleb Hampton, Talan Billberry, Jake Tyler and Jake Simmons.
“When we all got together last summer, we put together a plan for (the seniors) to lead, and I don’t know how you can look up and see what happened this year and not give the credit to those ten (seniors) who sat in our office this summer and agreed to do that,” Beck said. “And then they voted for Specht and Simmons as their team captains, and they took the lead. Just an incredible group of kids overall.
“I can’t say enough about what these guys accomplished this year, and I’m blessed to be a part of it — it was my first year as a head coach, our first year as a coaching staff together, and I just can’t take a lot of credit for the success. I’m so proud of all those guys, and I just can’t give them enough credit for how the season ended — they deserve all of it.”
The No. 12 Bearcats put together a much more impressive outing against No. 5 Benton in the Saturday matchup after only registering two hits in the opening game of the series. Ruston would be the home team in the second game of the series despite being on the road, and after surrendering a run to the Tigers in the top of the first, the Bearcats responded with a lead off double by junior Jackson Lee. Senior Jake Simmons would follow with a single in the next at-bat, and junior Nolan Parnell added a single right after to score Lee.
Two batters later, sophomore Hunter Soto singled to center field and score Simmons from second base for a 2-1 lead.
Benton, however, responded with two runs in the top of the second to retake the lead 3-2. The Bearcats would put another run up in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game 3-3 after Soto scored on a wild pitch from third base.
The Tigers then added eight total runs over the next three innings to lead 11-3 going into the bottom of the seventh. Ruston put a last ditch effort together with two outs after senior Payton Martin swung his Bearcat bat for the last time for a double to to score both sophomore Sam Hartwell and Davis Demoss for the final score of 11-5.
“We were overpowered on the first night by Thomas Allen,” Beck said of Benton’s opening night pitcher and the UL-Monroe signee. “He had a really good fastball and slider. We just weren’t ever in that game. But I’m proud of how the kids played after the really short turnaround (after Friday night). I felt like our batting practice went really well Saturday morning. Our kids were loose and ready to go, and they knew it was a one-game season at that point. And we were in that game all the way in the fifth inning — we just made some untimely mistakes. In the playoffs, everything is either timely hitting, timely pitches, or timely plays in the field. But I’m really proud of our seniors and what they’ve done for our program. It was a good experience to be able to watch those kids on and off the field after everything they’ve been through — I give those ten guys a lot of credit.”
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