by Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek head coach Chad Yates knew his team was much better than what it showed in a road loss at Ouachita Christian earlier in the week.
And on Thursday night, the Cougars (17-3) showed it.
Cedar Creek used a seven-run third inning to run past Haynesville 10-0 in a run-rule shortened contest.
“We had a rough one Tuesday over at OCS,” said Yates. “I felt like we competed well on the mound, but we left eight on base and made some errors. Tonight we wanted to come back and play aggressively. We came out and swung it and responded really well. That’s all I can ask for.”
Junior southpaw Kade Luker got the nod on the mound for Creek. The LSU commit had to overcome some first inning stress that saw the Golden Tornados load the bases thanks to a single — the only hit of the game — sandwiched around a pair of walks.
However, Luker recorded three of his nine strikeouts in the frame to get out of the early-game jam.
“Kade wasn’t crisp. He wasn’t sharp,” said Yates. “But he is still good enough. It’s always good when he is out there.”
Miller Tony got the start for Haynesville and kept the Cougars off the board in the first.
“I had never seen the Tony kid pitch,” said Yates. “We heard they had a good arm, and he was electric. He had good stuff and a good breaking ball. We were able to do some things on the bases to put ourselves in a position to get some runs.”
Creek took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Noah Smith drove in Ryan Coleman with the first run of the game on an RBI single up the middle and then Smith scored on a sacrifice fly by Drew Wade.
The Cougars unloaded in the third inning, plating seven runs on four hits while also capitalizing on an error, a walk and an HBP. Conner Nichols had a two-run single to right field to make the score 4-0 and Jax Doiron added a two-run single up the middle.
Wade picked up his second RBI of the game on a sacrifice bunt followed by a sacrifice bunt RBI by Eli Slocum. Luker drove in the final run of the inning on an RBI double down the right field line to make the score 9-0.
Luker worked 4.0 innings on the mound, allowing no runs on one hit with three walks and nine strikeouts.
Cedar Creek upped the advantage to 10-0 on a two-out RBI double to left field by Smith in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Brett Bell came on in relief of Luker and pitched a perfect fifth inning, including a pair of strikeouts.
“That was the first time we have had Brett on the mound since Calvary Baptist at the first of the year,” said Yates. “He really didn’t bounce back well after that start, and for what he does for us behind the dish, we just didn’t push it. We have been bullpening him and keeping him ready. We wanted to try to get him back on the dish tonight.”
Cedar Creek will play Arcadia and Lincoln Prep in a pair of makeup games on Saturday. The Cougars will then start the three-game district championship series against Glenbrook next Wednesday at Creek for Game 1. The second and if-necessary game will be played Thursday at Glenbrook.
“We feel like we are in a good spot,” said Yates. “We just need to keep swinging and keep playing hard and doing our thing.”
