BATON ROUGE, La. – A four-run fifth inning for Baton Rouge CC was too much for LSU Eunice to overcome as the Bengals fell on the road 5-3. LSUE out hit the Bears, 7-6, and couldn't take full advantage of three BRCC errors.
The Bengals did use one of the BRCC defensive miscues to score their first run of the game. Jacob Richard punched a one out single in the third, then scored off an errant pick-off attempt.
LSUE would bump its lead to 2-0 in the fifth after a pair of Baton Rouge natives would team up. Former Catholic High product Tristan Welch scorched a lead-off triple and was driven in by another former CHS standout, Hayden Mixon, on a sacrifice fly to center field.
Zach Hester (4-1) loaded the bases with two outs off of a single and two walks. Sean Daugherty delivered the go-ahead blow with a bases clearing double, giving BRCC the 3-2 edge. Tyler Caston followed that up with a run scoring single to plate Daugherty.
That chased Hester, who suffered his first loss of the season. The sophomore gave up four earned runs off four hits and two walks while striking out five.
LSUE had a chance to tie in the sixth after its first two batters reach on base off of a walk and error. The Bengals couldn't capitalize after a Slate Fuller fly out and back to back strikeouts from Cameron Horton and Tristan Welch.
The Bengals did cut into the lead in the seventh thanks to another Baton Rouge area product. Runnels High grad Johnny Johnson made it a 4-3 game with a pinch hit solo home run. The home run led to the end of Keith Meier's night. The BRCC starter fanned nine batters and gave up three runs, two earned, off of six hits and one walk.
Evan Becnal picked up the save by throwing the final 2.2 innings, giving up just one hit.
LSU Eunice will welcome Baton Rouge to Bengal Stadium on Saturday for a 6:00PM game. Bengal All-Access will have a live stream and a live audio feed will be on the Bayou Sports Network with Randy Guillory on the call.
Fans can also follow the baseball team's Twitter (@LSUEBengalsBSB), Facebook (@LSUEuniceBaseball) and Instagram (@LSUEBengals) accounts.
