The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Baseball and the month of May mean one thing to Bridge City and that’s playoff baseball. The Cardinals began their 2013 playoff run in Jasper this past Friday against the Shepherd Pirates and it certainly was an impressive way to start. Senior right handed pitcher Hayden Guidry set the tone early by striking out the first 7 batters he faced until the Pirates finally put a ball in play during their half of the 3rd inning. Guidry remained perfect through 4 innings and completed the game with 13 strikeouts while allowing 2 hits and no walks in 7 innings. This was easily Guidry’s most dominant performance of the season and certainly a momentum builder for the Cards.

Offensively Bridge City was lead by Senior first baseman Nick Portacci as he went 2 for 3 including a solo home run in the 6th inning. Junior centerfielder Keaton Langston chipped in with 2 hits as well while scoring a run. The balanced Cardinal attack got off to a slow start as they stranded runners in the first 2 innings before finally breaking out in the 3rd when Hunter Uzzle scored from 3rd on a passed ball. Bridge City scored 2 more times in the 5th and once in the 6th to give Guidry all the cushion he needed as he continued to mow down the Pirate hitters for a final score of 4-1.

Bridge City won’t have any time to sit around and celebrate that playoff win as they now prepare to take on the #1 ranked Sweeny Bulldogs in a best of 3 series starting Friday at 7:30 at Laporte High School.

Game 2 will start on Saturday at noon with game 3 following 30 minutes after if necessary.

Sweeny returns a veteran ballclub that made it to Austin last year where they lost to the West Trojans in the semi finals.

The Bulldogs represent district 24 as the champion where they were hardly tested along the way to the title.

Bridge City’s early season schedule and highly competitive district will certainly help them as they attempt to knock off the states #1 ranked team.

This years Cardinal squad is certainly battle tested and ready for their shot.

A few notes of interest about this years club that are certainly interesting when you look at them.

For the 2nd staright year the Cardinals have stolen over 100 bases, 102 to be exact after the Shepherd game.

The 2013 Cardinals also upped their team batting average this year as compared to last year at this time.

Senior Hayden Guidry broke the 100 strikeout mark for the 2nd consecutive year.

Junior Keaton Langston is 2 steals away from tying the single season mark held by 2012 grad Cameron Dishon.

Junior Hunter Uzzle is also on track to break or has already broken single season records for plate appearances, walks, hit by pitch, and home runs by a switch hitter.

Hopefully this Cardinal team will have several more weeks to add to those impressive totals as they push forward down the playoff road.