By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Ruston High (3-2) took a 5-4 win over Captain Shreve Monday night at J.C. Love Field on the campus of Louisiana Tech after getting four runs in the bottom of the third and the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth.
“I’m really proud of our kids and their response after dropping the double-header last weekend to Haughton,” Ruston High Head Coach Bryan Beck said. “They battled through some weights on Saturday and a really long practice on Sunday. We needed to clean some things up, and we challenged our kids to play better baseball and represent our school better. They came out and did that tonight.”
After the Gators took a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the third inning, senior Jackson Lee hit one of his two doubles on the night and brought home both senior Kenden Freeman and junior Hunter Soto to cut the lead to 3-2 with one out.
Junior JP Moak then singled on a line drive to right field and advanced Lee to third base, where a single by senior Nolan Parnell brought both Lee and Moak home to give Ruston its first lead of the night at 4-3.
After a scoreless fourth inning for both teams, the Gators tied the game 4-4 in the top of the fifth inning. Ruston’s Lee would get his second double of the night, however, in the bottom of the sixth inning on a liner to center field to score senior Michael Brisco for the go-ahead run and the 5-4 lead.
Sophomore Hudson Wilkerson got the start and pitched 3.1 innings and struck out six batters. Junior Sam Hartwell finished the remainder and threw 3.2 innings and struck out one batter.
“(Wilkerson) is a really good young arm for us and is going to be good for us in the coming years,” Beck said. “He worked through a little traffic early, and we were patient with him. And (Hartwell), we have really been ramping him up as a back end bullpen guy for us to come in and close the door. We wanted to make sure his arm is okay after football season and that he’s where he needs to be to serve our team. He’s an incredible competitor — that’s what we expect from him and what he expects from himself.
“Our pitchers have done a phenomenal job this year and I can’t say enough about those guys.”
In total, the Bearcats finished with nine hits and were led by Lee with three hits and three runs batted in. Both Moak and Soto finished with two hits apiece, while Parnell finished with two RBI on the night.
“We had some timely hits tonight,” Beck said. “Jackson Lee had some big-time bats for us to break the game open for us. Moak had some big hits, and Soto got his first start at DH for us this season tonight. Ultimately, it was an all-round team victory against a really good Captain Shreve opponent. They’re going to win a bunch of games this year, and we were fortunate to squeak out a victory. We’ll take it.”
The Bearcats will return to action this weekend and host the Trey Altick Classic from Thursday through Saturday.
“It doesn’t get any easier for us (this weekend),” Beck said. “We’ll enjoy tonight, but we’ll have to get back to work.”
