Bengal Baseball sweeps opening weekend with pair of Saturday wins
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 The LSU Eunice baseball team grabbed a pair of wins over visiting North Lake College on Saturday afternoon to sweep the three game season-opening series.
The Bengals (3-0) racked up 10 RBIs en route to an 11-1 game one victory Saturday before tallying 13 hits as part of a 6-4 win in the second game of the doubleheader.
"It was a long day of baseball. I'm proud of the way the guys fought through that, but I thought we lost our focus in the second game. As you get later in the year, if you go through the motions like we did, you may not come out on top," head coach Jeff Willis said.
"We are an extremely talented team. We have a lot of work to do. We can handle some physical errors, but there were a lot of mental errors that occurred. We have to cut down on that. But if we throw strikes and offensively, if we have good at-bats and get timely hits, we are going to win a lot of ballgames," he added.
In the first game, sophomore Derek Herrington finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a double, driving in three RBIs to pace LSU Eunice, who also saw fellow sophomore Stefan Trosclair (2 RBIs) and freshman Ben Chauvin (RBI) collect two hits each.
Freshman Brennen Bozeman and sophomore Ray Veit each notched a hit and an RBI, while sophomore Tyler Chapman (0-2, 2 BB) and David LaFleur (0-2, 2 BB) each drove home a run as well.
Nick Hartman earned the win for the Bengals in his collegiate debut, tossing five innings and allowing five hits, two walks and one run while striking out five batters. Sophomore O.J. Latin wrapped up the final two innings, striking out two batters.
After a North Lake solo home run in the top of the first inning, the Bengals responded with a seven-run third inning before adding three runs in the fifth and a final run in the seventh.
The third inning saw RBI singles from Trosclair and Chauvin and back-to-back bases loaded walks to Veit and LaFleur before Herrington delivered his double to drive home all three baserunners.
Trosclair collected his second RBI single in the fifth inning, as LSU Eunice also plated a run on a wild pitch and an RBI groundout by Bozeman before leaving the bases loaded to end the inning. They added their final run on a sacrifice fly by Chapman in the seventh to plate Trosclair.
The second game saw Herrington again collect three hits, including a double, while he added an RBI and scored twice. Fellow sophomore Kyle St. Pierre notched a three-hit game of his own with a double and RBI, as Bozeman (2-5, run), Trosclair (2-4, BB, RBI, 2 runs) and freshman Madison Nickens (2-4, run) all collected two hits. Chapman (1-5) connected for a two-run double for his lone hit of the second game.
Freshman Zach Hamilton tossed 3 2/3 innings in his first collegiate start, striking out four while allowing four hits and one run. Jevin Huval (2 innings, 2 hits, 2 K) earned the win, as he, Kolby Green (1 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 K), Ben LeBlanc (2/3 inning, 1 hit, 1 BB, 2 K) and Sam Walley (1 1/3 innings, 2 K) combined to toss the final 5 1/3 innings out of the bullpen.
After taking the lead in the bottom of the first on a North Lake error, the Bengals saw the visitors tie the game in the fourth before posting three runs in the top of the fifth to take a three-run lead.
LSU Eunice responded in the bottom of the fifth, using an RBI doubles from Herrington and Chapman, and an run-scoring single from Trosclair to regain the lead before adding a final insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on St. Pierre's RBI double.
The Bengals return to action next weekend when they welcome St. Charles Community College to town for a three-game set beginning Friday night with a 6 p.m. first pitch. All three games can be seen on Bengal All-Access, while Friday and Sunday's games will be available on KVPI radio.
