Bears drop two to Vidor

The Little Cypress Mauriceville Bears played games on Tuesday and Friday with the Vidor Pirates during the last week of March. The Pirates came away with wins in both games.

On Tuesday Little Cypress Mauriceville had the advantage late but the Pirates rallied to pull out the 4-3 victory in Vidor. Two runs in the sixth inning gave the Pirates the lead which they did not relinquish. Bryce Bushelle got the win on the mound pitching the first six innings and Aiden Sims earned a save by pitching the seventh inning for Vidor.

The second game was played at Don Gibbens Field on the LCM campus. The Pirates beat the Bears 7-4 to improve their district record to 5-1 while the Bears dropped to 1-3 in district.

Vidor opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when four straight Pirates reached base with walks beginning with Austin Cadroy who scored on a wild pitch. Bear pitcher Cameron Bilbo escaped further damage striking out opposing Pirate pitcher Logan Morris and retiring Ty Watson on a soft liner to shortstop Parker Seago to end the inning with the bases loaded with Pirates.

Bilbo tied the game for Little Cypress Mauriceville in the bottom of the second with a leadoff homerun to center field. It was the first of only three hits off Morris in the game.

The Pirates retook the lead in the top of the third as three straight batters reached after there was one out. Jarrett Odom scored on a single by Morris and Cade Safer scored from third base on a Bear error to put Vidor up 3-1.

Seago replaced Bilbo on the mound and struck out two Pirates to complete the Vidor third. In the fourth Cadroy tripled to right center field with two outs and came home on a passed ball to increase the Pirate advantage to three runs.

Pirate pitcher Morris had control problems in the bottom half of the fourth walking three Bears. He narrowly avoided disaster after walking the first two Bear batters when Bilbo hit another long fly ball to deep left that appeared to be a game tying homer but the ball was caught near the fence for the first out. Marco Bandiero scored when Justin McCarver reached on an error that made the score 4-2 in favor of Vidor after four innings.

Shaky fielding by both teams resulted in the Pirates scoring two runs in the top of the sixth matched by the Bears in the bottom half of the same inning. Little Cypress Mauriceville had a great opportunity to turn an inning ending double play but it appeared the Bear fielder forgot how many outs there were by just stepping on second base and not relaying to first to complete the twin killing.

Singles by Daigan Venable and Cadroy plated the two Pirate runs to increase their lead to 6-2. Vidor returned the favor when their infielder decided to make a difficult throw back to second base instead of making an easy toss with a four-run lead to first for a sure out and threw the ball into left field. Bandiero scored on a sacrifice fly by Parker Freeman and Dean Reynolds came home on a single by McCarver to return the deficit to two runs for the Bears.

Vidor scored its final run in the seventh as Odom opened the inning with a single, went to second on a balk, and advanced to third on a long fly to center. A double by Morris drove Odom in to make the score 7-4. Morris retired the Bears in order in the bottom of the seventh including registering his seventh strikeout of the game.

The Bridge City Cardinals had their bye week the final week of March. This week will be two big games between the Cardinals and the Vidor Pirates.

Tuesday's game was at Bridge City and Thursday the two teams will play in Vidor. The Cardinals entered the week with a record of 3-1 in district. The Pirates have their bye week after the two games with Bridge City.

West Orange Stark is 0-6 in district. The Mustangs played their closest game so far in district losing 10-5 to the Jasper Bulldogs on Friday, March 31.

The first week of April is the bye week for West Orange Stark. The Mustangs play again at home on Tuesday, April 11, against the Silsbee Tigers. The Mustangs and the Tigers then play on Friday, April 14, in Silsbee.