EUNICE, La. – LSU Eunice mounted a furious fourth inning rally but a late stand by Panola College dealt the Bengals a 9-7 loss on Tuesday at Bengal Stadium. The Bengals (33-14) dug themselves a six-run hole before tying the game in the seventh inning.
LSUE found itself trailing 6-0 in the fourth inning after Panola struck for five runs in the third off a two-run double and three-run home run. The Ponies added another run in the fourth thanks to a wild pitch.
The Bengals responded with a five-run frame of their own in the fourth, kicked off by a bases loaded two-run double by
Michael Fontenot (Kinder, LA, Kinder HS). The three other runs would be manufactured from a walk, one of five Panola errors and a sacrifice grounder out by
Peyton LeJeune (Church Point, LA, Teurlings Catholic HS).
The two sides would swap runs in the fifth before Fontenot tied the game in the seventh with a sacrifice fly to center field to plate
Cole Romero (Scott, LA, Acadiana HS).
Panola continued the back-and-forth action in the ninth, using back-to-back base hits to lead off the inning and score the go-ahead run. A two-out single later in the frame would give a valuable insurance run.
The Bengals would get a one-out single by
Christian Gonzalez (Breaux Bridge, LA, Breaux Bridge HS) to try to begin a ninth inning rally but was squashed with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game. Gonzalez led the Bengals with a two-hit game, part of a seven-hit afternoon for LSU Eunice.
A bright spot on the mound for the Bengals was a relief stint by
Brock Barthelemy (Gonzales, LA, Dutchtown HS). The sophomore strung together a season long three innings of work, shutting out the Ponies while scattering three hits and a walk.
Jackson Rodriguez (Kingwood, TX, Kingwood Park HS) was dealt the loss, going 0.2 innings and giving up the two runs in the ninth.
The game begins a busy final week for the Bengals. LSUE heads to Centenary College on Wednesday for an afternoon doubleheader and return home this weekend for a three-game series with Delgado. The Bengals close out the regular season next week with two road dates at LSU Alexandria and Panola College.
