Cardinals make playoffs, Bears do not

The Bridge City Cardinals closed their regular season on a five-game winning streak and finished in second place in District 19-4A to make the post season. The Cardinals were 9-3 one game behind the district champion Vidor Pirates.

The last week of the regular season had two games between Bridge City and the West Orange Stark Mustangs. The Cardinals won both games.

On Tuesday the Cardinals scored six runs in the fifth inning to beat the Mustangs 8-1 at Ronnie Anderson Park. Aidyn Mulhollan was the winning pitcher for Bridge City and combined with relievers Parker Norwood and RJ Esquivel to allow only one hit in the game by Mustang Zach Nation.

Mulholland also collected three hits himself in the game. Cardinal catcher Justin Abate had two hits and three runs batted in.

West Orange Stark celebrated Senior Night prior to the game. Mustangs Darren Anderson, Travarri Beasly, Carlos Calana, David Robledo, AT Wilson, and Tyrone Wilson were honored during a pre-game ceremony.

Friday was Senior Night in Bridge City. The Cardinals said good bye to Grant Hale, Noah Broussard, Braeden Pitre, Braylen Collins, Chasse Goodwin, RJ Esquivel, JS Bearden, Lane Brinson, Brice Swanton, Parker Norwood, Matt Livingston, Justin Abate, Shaun Hallman, Lucas Sena, and Keaton Watts.

Bridge City Coach Chad Landry gave the seniors playing time during the game with the Mustangs. "I couldn't be more proud of our guys on Senior Night. We had thirteen guys hit the field and thirteen seniors produced. It was just a lot of fun to see those guys get in there and get after it," Landry commented.

Senior Braylen Collins started on the mound going two scoreless innings allowing one hit and striking out three Mustangs. Three other seniors Lane Brinson, RJ Esquivel, and Parker Norwood each tossed one inning for the Cardinals.

Collins doubled off the left field fence at Chuck Young Field to start the bottom of the second inning. Mulhollan singled him to third. Collins scored the first run of the game when Mulhollan intentionally got into a run down between second and first drawing the attention away from Collins who stole home.

The Mustangs tied the game in the top of the third as Carlos Calana singled to begin the inning. Calana advanced to second on a passed ball and then to third on a wild pitch before coming home on a two-out single to center by Will Lee.

Bridge City bounced back in the bottom half of the same inning to score five runs. The first five Cardinals reached base including a double by Landon Reeves sandwiched between three walks before senior Justin Abate singled to drive in two runs. The last two runs came in as Collins hit a sacrifice fly and Mulhollan singled to put Bridge City up 6-1 after three innings.

In the fourth inning Chasse Goodwin another senior led off with a homerun just inside the right field foul pole for the Cardinals. JS Bearden singled and Abate doubled to left to bring him home. Courtesy runner Hutch Bearden ran for Abate and scored on a Mustang error to increase the lead to eight runs.

The final runs for Bridge City came in the bottom of the fifth when Braeden Pitre singled, Goodwin reached on an error, and Abate got his third hit of the night. The lead was stretched to invoke the 10-run rule ending the game 11-1 in favor of the Cardinals.

The Bridge City Cardinals have scheduled a best of three playoff series with the Splendora Wildcats in Anahuac. Game one will be on Friday, May 5, at 5:00 PM and the second game will be at 4:00 PM on Saturday. A third game if necessary would be played after game two.

The Little Cypress Mauriceville Bears needed to win their last two games against the Silsbee Tigers in order to force a third game as a play-in contest against the Tigers. The game on Tuesday, April 25, was Senior Night at Don Gibbens Field for the Bears as Dean Reynolds, Evan Landry, Keaton Morphew, Dylan Istre, Blaze Compton, Cole Johnson, and Cameron Bilbo were honored.

Unfortunately, three errors by Little Cypress Mauriceville led to five unearned runs for Silsbee and a 6-0 loss. Dean Reynolds pitched a complete game for the Bears giving up one earned run on ten hits with no walks and striking out five Tigers.

Eight Bears reached base against Silsbee starter Logan Simmons but none of them crossed the plate. The Silsbee ace allowed only a second inning single to Reynolds, walked three, hit three batters, and another LCM hitter reached on a Tiger error.

Simmons struck out 12 Bears in six innings before giving way to Van Mitchell because of his high pitch count. Mitchell retired the three batters he faced in the seventh.

Possibly feeling the letdown after being eliminated from a playoff berth Little Cypress Mauriceville traveled to Silsbee on Friday. The Tigers won 11-1 in five innings.