Cardinals down HJ behind Lemoine’s 17 K’s in district opener

Bridge City Cardinal baseball fans had no idea what they would witness as they found their way to their seats for the 21-3A district opener against Hardin Jefferson.

It would soon be apparent to everyone in attendance that something special was happening right before their collective eyes.

Senior right-hander Jacob Lemoine went to work on the hill for the Cards and by the time he called it a night he had racked up 17 strikeouts and tied the school record.

Lemoine had one of the most dominant pitching performances in recent memory as he only allowed two bunt singles and an infield single in seven innings of work.

What was perhaps the most impressive stat of the night is that he allowed only one walk while piling up all those strikeouts in a 7-0 victory.

The offense for Bridge City was lead by Senior Cameron Dishon and Sophomore Hunter Uzzle as they each collected two hits a piece. Mitchell Hubbard, Bryce Sampere, Hayden Guidry, Cameron Coulter, and Keaton Langston also had hits for the Cardinal attack. Bridge City continues to take full advantage of their team speed and pressed the issue all night with seven steals and aggressive base running. The Cardinals made HJ pay for several critical miscues on defense and seemed to get the majority of the breaks during the game. At the rate Lemoine was going the Cardinal offense didn’t need many runs but the seven run cushion certainly helped put the game away.

BC’s next opponent will be their district rival the Silsbee Tigers.

Silsbee has gotten off to a fast start this season as well and also opened up their district schedule with a 9-1 win over Orangefield.

The game between these two is always highly contested and this one will certainly be no different, especially considering the condensed schedule for the weekend and beyond.

21-3A teams will play Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday to make up for re-scheduling due to state mandated tests.

Three games in five days will certainly test even the deepest pitching staffs so a critical win over a big district opponent could catapult one of these teams to an early lead in the standings.

Bridge City is certainly deep enough on the hill to handle the task and that’s exactly what head coach Chad Landry and the Cardinal faithful are hoping for.

Speaking of the Cardinal faithful and hope it appears that BC has taken major steps towards returning to full strength as seniors Matt Menard and Zach Smith appear to be recovering nicely from injuries and should be back on the field in the near future. It will certainly be great to see both of these players back in action. In the mean time the Cardinals will continue to prepare for possibly the toughest stretch of the season and another run at a district title and beyond.