Bengals take afternoon contest against Mississippi Gulf Coast
Box Score
The LSU Eunice baseball team grabbed its’ fifth straight win on Saturday afternoon when they beat visiting Mississippi Gulf Coast 8-1 in their first of two games on the day.
The Bengals (16-3) now come back tonight for the second game in their three-game set with Northeast Texas Community College, set for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
Against Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Bengals used a six-run third inning to cruise to the comfortable win.
“(In the second inning) we got two runs off three quality at-bats in a row. In the third inning, the six runs we put up were all quality at-bats. I thought every single hitter had quality at-bats and were tough outs,” head coach Jeff Willis said.
Garrett Deschamp led the way with a 3-for-4 afternoon, while Buddy McCoy was a perfect 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs before leaving with an injury.
Six other LSU Eunice hitters each recorded a hit, as Trent Vidrine (1-2), Landon Thibodeaux (1-1, 2 BB), Ray Veit (1-3) and Tyler Chapman (1-4) each added an RBI as well.
Lefty Chad Reeves improved to 4-0 on the year after tossing seven innings and allowing three hits and three walks while striking out five Mississippi Gulf Coast (6-3) batters.
Reeves biggest inning came early on, when he walked the bases loaded with one out in the second inning, but worked out of the jam and received a pop out and ground out to get out of the inning.
“It was good to see that, he got through that inning and then had three quick innings. He got into a groove, settled in and threw up all the zeros for us,” Willis said.
Dominick Landry allowed a walk and the visitors’ lone run to score in his one inning of work in the eighth before Clay Tageant struck out one batter in a perfect ninth inning.
Thibodeaux reached with a one-out single in the second inning before stealing second base and scoring on McCoy’s double to open the scoring, with McCoy scoring one batter later when Veit singled through the left side.
In the third inning, the Bengals used four hits, two errors, two walks and a hit batsman, including RBI singles by Vidrine and McCoy and a sacrifice fly RBI by Thibodeaux, as they sent ten men to the plate in the inning.
LSU Eunice left the bases loaded in the third inning and also left two runners on in the eighth inning.
Mississippi Gulf Coast’s lone run came in the top of the eighth, when Landry surrendered a leadoff walk to J.C. Heflin before he advanced around the bases and scored on a groundout later in the inning.
The Bengals now turn their attention back to their series against Northeast Texas Community College tonight.
“It’s important for our guys to realize we played well last night and the first game today, but none of that carries over to tonight,” Willis said.
Tonight’s game can be seen on Bengal All-Access and heard over the airwaves on KVPI 92.5 FM.
