The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The West Orange-Stark Mustangs took on the Nederland Bulldogs in their home opener. Jordan Darnall pitched six fine innings of baseball, but the Stangs could not overcome two homeruns belted by the Bulldogs. Nederland hit a three run bomb in the first inning, and a solo shot in the third. Nederland added an extra insurance run in the fifth inning, but did not need it, as the Dogs came out on top 5-3.

In the six innings that Darnall pitched, he gave up five hits, hit four batters, and struck out two. Zane Anderson came in and pitched the seventh, facing the minimum, while striking out two. West Orange also had five hits in the contest. Their lead off hitter Darius Mitchell started his offensive stats off the best way you can. In his first official at bat for 2011, Mitchell hit an opposite field homer.

In the seventh inning, he hit an opposite field double off of the wall. Clearly these opposite field shots show he is seeing the ball well already this early in the season. Along with Mitchell’s long ball in the first, Darnall added a single in the frame. The Stangs scored their final two runs in the fourth inning. Chaz York hit a single, stole second, and went to third on a throwing error by the Nederland catcher. L

uke Domas drew a walk, then Justyn Harrison was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Daniel Woodson collected an RBI with a walk. James Thomas stepped in and hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Domas. Nederland pitching put the Mustangs down in order in the sixth inning, and held off a come from behind victory in the seventh. The Stangs loaded the bases up with a Woodson leadoff single, a Mitchell double, and Darnall was hit by a pitch, but the Nederland pitching stiffened up to stop the comeback.

The Orangefield Bobcats started their season with a win, 9-4 over the Ozen Panthers. The Bobcats were down until the sixth inning, where they exploded for six runs. Freshmen Braxton Smith and Westin Crain handled most of the pitching, with Quinton Evans coming in to pitch the seventh. Smith pitched the first four innings, giving up three hits, striking out three, walking one, and hitting one batter. Crain pitched the fifth and sixth innings, giving up two hits, striking out three, while hitting a batter, also. In the inning Evans pitched, he allowed one hit and one walk. The first hit of the young season for the Cats came off the bat of Austin Scales, a triple in the third inning.

The Bobcats scored two of their nine runs in the third. Evans scored the third run for the Cats in the fifth inning after reaching on a walk. Orangefield put the game away in the sixth inning. Six consecutive singles sparked the inning. Sterling Deslatte started it off, followed by Parker James, Dustin Selman, Scales, Jonathon DeRamus, and Evans. Crain had a base on balls, followed by a double by Smith. The Cats crossed the plate six times.

Errors led to Bridge City dropping their first game to the Port Neches Indians 5-1.

It was a pitching duel, with only six total hits in the game. Bridge City had two of those hits, one being a homerun by Forrest Zoch, and the other a single by Mitchel Hubbard. Port Neches scored two run in the first, and three in the fourth, all un-earned runs. The only run for the Cardinals came in the fourth off of Zoch’s long ball. Hubbard, Zoch, and Lemoine handle the pitching duties. Hubbard pitched the first three innings while giving up two hits, walking one, and striking out four. Zoch pitched the fifth and sixth innings. His stat sheet read one hit, two walks, and one strike out. Jacob Lemoine pitched the last inning. He faced the minimum, allowing one hit.

The LC-M Bears took game one of their season with a back and fourth victory over the Kelly Bulldogs. Alex Blem scored the first run of the game after a throwing error from the Bulldogs catcher. The Bears had a 2-0 lead after the third inning that was sparked by a Ryan Waddell double, followed by an RBI single from Brandon Humphrey. The lead quickly changed with Kelly’s four run fourth. The Dogs extended their lead with a solo homerun in the fifth to bring the score to 2-5. In the bottom of the sixth, LC-M reclaimed the lead with a four run frame, only to see it slip away in the seventh as Kelly tied things up 6-6.

The Bears scored the winning run in the bottom of seventh with a Scott Vaughan RBI. Vaughan did it the hard way, by getting hit by the pitch. Zach Drouillard started the inning off the same way it ended, by also getting hit by a pitch. Drouillard advanced to second on a pass ball, and went to third on a sac bunt by Hunter Gonzales. Ryan Carline, and Jonathan Allen drew walks to set up Vaughn’s RBI, scoring Drouillard to end the game.

The Vidor Pirates started their year off with a come from behind win against the Kelly Bulldogs, outscoring the Bulldogs 4-3.

LC-M hosted the Don Gibbens tournament. The Bridge City Cardinals, Crosby, Hamshire-Fannett, and Vista Ridge traveled to Orange to attend. LC-M posted a 4-1 record, and Bridge City had a 2-3 record. The first game of the tournament was Bridge City against Crosby. The Cardinals had thirteen hits, with six of them being homeruns. Forrest Zoch had two of the long balls. Cameron Dishon had a hot bat, going three for three with two singles, and a home run. Mitchel Hubbard had a double, and a homerun.

Zach Smith and Matt Menard had the other two long balls. Preston Pitman had two hits, both being singles, and Bryce Sampere and Chance Lemoine added a single apiece also. Hayden Guidry took care of the pitching while allowing five hits, four walks, four strike outs, and one hit batter. Bridge City took the first game of the tournament 13-3.

LC-M took on Vista Ridge and came out on top 13-1. The Bears had eleven hits. Ryan Waddell had the hot bat, going three for four. Zach Drouillard seems to be settling in nice at LC-M. He went two for two, with a double and a homerun. Brandon Humphrey added a long ball also. Ryan Carline contributed with a three run double. Kevin Adams, Alex Blem, Hunter Gonzales, and Brylon Douglas all added singles in the contest. James Swan took care of the pitching duties, giving up three hits, walking four, and striking out three.

The Cardinals went seven innings against the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns, easily walking away with a 9-1 victory. Preston Pitman pitched five and a third innings, giving up only three hits, walking three and striking out six. Colby Carpenter relieved Pitman in the sixth. He gave up one hit, walked two, and struck out one. Jacob Lemoine pitched the seventh. He struck out one to accompany his two walks, and one batter he hit.

The Cardinals had eleven hits of the offensive side of the ball, led by Bryce Sampere and Brandon Simoneaux. They both went three for three in the game with three singles. Zach Smith had two hits, a single, and a double. Forrest Zoch kept his hot bat with another long ball, and Cameron Dishon and Preston Pitman each had a single.

Crosby gave LC-M their only lost in the tournament. The Bears battled back, but could not over come a six run first inning. The Bears belted fifteen hits in the contest, all singles, except for Zach Drouillard’s two run homerun in the fourth. Ryan Waddell had three of the hits.

Kevin Adams, Shea Richard, James Swan, and Hunter Gonzalez had two hit’s a piece, and Scott Vaughan, Zach Drouillard, and Jonathan Allen each had a hit. Alex Blem, Shea Richard, and Hunter Gonzalez handled the work on the mound. Bears pitching gave up nine hits, ten base on balls, and struck out six. Crosby came away with the game 9-6.

LC-M’s Kody Smith and Dillon Young shut the Cardinals down in the first match up of the Orange County teams. Smith pitched four innings, while not allowing a hit until the fourth, which was a two run homer, by none other than Forrest Zoch. Smith only gave up two hits in the contest, the other a single by Preston Pitman.

Smith walked two and struck out nine. Dillon Young pitched the final two innings, only allowing one base on balls. The Bears put the game away in the fifth inning with a four run frame. LC-M scored one run in the first, and one in the second before putting the game away in the fifth.

In the first, Kevin Adams had a double, then advanced to third on Ryan Waddell’s ground out, and he scored on a pass ball. In the second James Swan walked, went to second on an Alex Blem single, took third on a sac bunt by Hunter Gonzalez, and then scored on a sac fly by Ryan Carline. Gonzalez added a single in the fourth frame.

In the fifth Waddell and Humphrey had a free pass, followed by a single by Drouillard. Jonathan Allen reached on an error, allowing the first run on the inning to score. DH Alex Blem hit a single that scored the second and third runs of the inning. Gonzalez drew a walk , that was followed by an RBI single by lead off hitter Scott Vaughan. Mitchel Hubbard, Jacob Lemoine and Forrest Zoch did the pitching for Bridge City.

The Bears beat the Hamshire Fannett Longhorn 12-4. The Bears scored twelve unanswered run after the Longhorns took a 4-0 lead. Gonzales brought LC-M within two in the second inning with two RBI’s. James Swan narrowed that led to one with an RBI in the third. The Bears busted the game open in the fourth, with RBI’s from Kevin Adams, Ryan Waddell, Alex Blem and Zach Drouillard to take over the game 8-4. James Swan and Drouillard made sure the game was put away with long balls in the fifth.

Bridge City took a two to nothing lead early in the game against Vista Ridge. Vista Ridge came back to tie it at two, but the Cardinals took back the lead in the top of the sixth 4-2. Vista Ridge hit a homerun in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3. The back in forth game came to an end with a walk off two run homer by Vista Ridge, to claim the game 5-4.

The final game of the tournament was a rematch of LC-M and Bridge City. The Bears pounded the Cardinals 16-5.

Other scores in the tournament were. Hamshire-Fannett 2 - Crosby 0, Cedar Park Vista Ridge 11 - Hamshire Fannett 0, Crosby 5 - Vista Ridge 2 and Crosby 10 - Vista Ridge 4.

The Orangefield Bobcats went to Lumberton to play in their tournament, and came away with a two and two record. The field consisted of Lumberton, Orangefield, Central, Buna, Coldspring and Hardin Jefferson. The Bobcats made quick work of Central 16-2, before losing their first game 13-4 to Buna.

The Bobcats only had three hits against Coldspring, but played some nice small ball to generate three runs, for a 3-2 win. Austin Scales who is toting a hot bat for the Bobcats, led off with double, advanced to third on a DeRamus ground ball, and scored on a Quinton Evans sac fly to center.

In the third inning, Orangefield scored their second run after Jakob Brown made it to first on a dropped third strike. Brown then stole second base, advanced to third on Scales sac bunt, and scored on DeRamus’ sac fly to center. The Cats scored their final run in the fifth after Scales second hit of the game. DeRamus picked up the RBI. Evans pitched a complete game, giving up three hits, hitting one batter, and striking out three.

In a fun game to watch, Orangefield came up just short with a 5-4 loss to the Lumberton Raiders. Westin Crain and Luke Johnson handled the pitching chores. Crain pitched four innings. In his efforts, he gave up two hits, one walk, and struck out four. Johnson pitched the final two while giving up one hit, two walks, and striking out three. Lumberton scored three runs in the third, and two in sixth to seal the victory. Orangefield scored one in the first with an Austin Scales lead off triple, followed by a 6-4-3 double play that Scales scored on.

Orangefield scored two in the fifth when Parker James doubled, then went to second on a Jakob Brown single, and scored on a pass ball. Brown scored on Austin Scales; second hit of the game, a single. They added another run in the sixth, Jake Best reached on a single, and went to third on a throwing error from the catcher. Crain drove a deep fly ball to center that scored Best. Eric Truncale added a single in the frame. Jonathon DeRamus and Brown recorded a single in the seventh, but the Raiders were able to get out of the inning with no runs scored.

Other Scores in the tournament were Lumberton 8 - Buna 0, Coldspring 13 - HJ 5, Lumberton 4 - Coldspring 3, Buna 5 - HJ 4, Coldspring 15 - Central 5, Lumberton 13 - HJ 3 and Buna 13 - Central 2.

WO-S competed in the Vidor Tournament. The field consisted of Barbers Hill, Kelly, Ozen, Jasper, Dayton, Vidor and West Orange. The Mustangs dropped their first three games before beating Vidor 5-3. West Orange lost to Ozen 7-4, Kelly 14-8 and Barbers Hill 8-1. Zane Anderson recorded the win for the Mustang against Vidor with a complete game.

Other scores in the tournament were Jasper 25-Ozen 7, Kelly 10-Dayton 7, Jasper 3-Vidor 1, Barbers Hill 18-Kelly 9, Vidor 2-Barbers Hill 0, and Dayton 7-Jasper 6, Ozen 7-Dayton 5, Ozen 7-Kelly 4.

West Orange-Stark will host the Certa Bearden tournament this week. Bridge City and Vidor will be playing in the Certa earden tournament. Orangefield will host their tournament, and LC-M will travel to Brenham to play in their tournament.