By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — The newly renovated grandstands opened Friday for Ruston High (2-2) as the Bearcats took the opening game of a series on Thursday over Haughton before dropping two close ones on the road on Friday to the Buccaneers back at their home field.
The Bearcats got a 5-3 victory in game one after taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when senior Jackson Lee scored thanks to a ground ball hit by senior Nolan Parnell. After Haughton scored two in the top of the second inning for a 2-1 lead, the Bearcats would get two more in the bottom of the fourth inning after junior JP Moak doubled to left and scored both senior Jackson Burroughs and junior Keilan Davis to put Ruston back on top 3-2.
Haughton would tie the game 3-3 in the top of the fifth inning, but Ruston would get its two go-ahead runs when Tucker Patterson and senior Kenden Freeman crossed home plate in the bottom of the fifth for the final 5-3 score.
“Obviously, it started off good for us Thursday night with our home opener,” Ruston High Head Coach Bryan Beck said. “We were able to pull out a win over a really tough Haughton team, and it was tough for most of the game. Moak was a big force with a couple runs batted in to kind of break it open for us.”
The Bearcats got a quality start from junior pitcher Tyler Roach, who struck out five batters and only had one earned run in his 3.0 innings pitched. The Bearcats also saw action from junior Peyton Nations, Moak, junior Hunter Soto and Lee due to early season pitch count limits.
Lee was able to get his first save of the year, as well.
“I thought our pitchers did phenomenal,” Beck said of Thursday’s game.
Haughton, however, responded on Friday with two wins in a double-header — first 4-2 in a 10-inning game where the ‘Cats committed six errors overall, and then a close 5-4 win right afterward.
“We battled really hard in both games,” Beck said. “Max Pyles started that game — a lefty sophomore force— and he pitched his tail off, and unfortunately, we had to pull him due to pitch count. Hudson Wilkerson came in the ball game and pitched well for us. He’s another sophomore.”
The Bearcats got one run in both the tops of the third and eighth innings – first when Lee scored on a steal to home and then again thanks to a double by Moak to score senior Hudson Wood to go up 2-1 in extras. Haughton would tie the game 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth and then win on a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the tenth.
The ‘Cats then lost 5-4 in the second game of the double-header despite a fierce rally in the top of the seventh.
Ruston scored two in the top of the second to go up 2-0 after Lee singled into centerfield and scored Freeman. Moak then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score senior Michael Brisco. After Haughton took the lead 5-2 going into the seventh, the Bearcats brought in two more runs after Parnell doubled to score Moak first, followed then by Wood scoring on a ground-out by Soto. It would not be enough, unfortunately, as Haughton held on for the 5-4 victory.
“Our pitching staff was phenomenal this weekend and I was really, really proud of those guys and happy to see what they did on the mound,” Beck said. “They gave us a chance to be in every ball game and to win every game. Our bullpen came in and kept us in the ball games — we just were really anemic and we’ve just got some timing and issues on offense right now. And I think that’ll come as we continue to play, and I felt like we had a really good practice today.”
Ruston returns to action today at J.C. Love Field on the campus of Louisiana Tech University to take on Captain Shreve at 4 p.m.
“We have a really tough schedule for the next few weeks,” Beck said. “But we’re excited and looking forward to what’s ahead.”
