Orangefield wins a pair to stay in first place

The second half of the district schedule begins this week for District 21-3A. The Orangefield Bobcats solidified its position at the top of the district standings with two decisive wins at Paul Cormier Field last week.

Orangefield clobbered the Kountze Lions 11-1 in five innings on the final Tuesday of March. Kaleb Menard pitched four innings for the win allowing just one hit and striking out five Lions. Colton Myers threw the final inning to close out the Bobcat victory.

Caleb Fregia swung the biggest bat for the Bobcats. Fregia went three for four with a triple.

On Thursday, Orangefield pounded the Anahuac Panthers 10-1 for its sixth straight win in district. Brycen Tait got the win throwing four innings, allowing one run on four hits, and striking out four. Carson Gonzales pitched two shutout innings with five strikeouts. Garrett Rawls closed out the seventh inning and struck out the final Panther to end the game.

Kane Smith was back in the starting lineup after a slight leg injury and went four for four with three runs batted in for the Bobcats. Caleb Fregia and Matthew Johnson collected two hits apiece including a double by both of them.

Pitching is so important and the Orangefield has had it through the first half of district games. "We know what we're going to get out of Tait. He was good again filling up the strike zone. Brycen's always going to be good for us. I was real impressed with the guys that came in. Carson Gonzales was throwing hard filling up the strike zone, and then Rawls had a real clean last inning, so that's good for us," Bobcat Coach Tim Erickson summarized.

The Bobcats are 6-1 in district action. They have a one game lead in the district standings.

Orangefield played at Kirbyville on Tuesday. The Wildcats handed the Bobcats their only district loss 3-2 back on March 5. The Bobcats travel to East Chambers this Friday night.

The Bridge City Cardinals resumed district action this week as the leader in the standings for District 19-4A. The Cardinals had their bye last week and were 4-0 when they played at Vidor on Tuesday. Bridge City's next game will be at home against Vidor on Friday, April 5.

The Little Cypress Mauriceville Bears split their two games with the Vidor Pirates last week. The Bears won 6-5 in extra innings on Tuesday, March 26, for their first win in district.

The Pirates took the early lead putting a run across in the first inning. Marco Bandiero gave the Bears a 4-1 advantage when he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Landon Richards was the starting pitcher for LCM and threw five strong innings before being relieved by Bandiero in the sixth. Vidor was down to its final out when Westin Baker singled and Daigan Venable doubled him home to tie the game 5-5 in the top of the seventh.

Little Cypress Mauriceville threatened in the bottom of that inning and again in the next putting two Bears on base with only one out. Both times the Pirates turned a double play first in the seventh on a fly out and a throw out of an LCM runner trying to advance to third and again on a grounder to second to end the eighth inning.

In the top of the ninth Baker got a one out walk. Venable hit a liner to left on which Jacob Scheiderer made a sensational diving catch to rob Daigan of a hit. Bandiero struck out Jarrett Odom to end the inning.

Scheiderer led off the bottom of the ninth walking on a three, two pitch. He stole second and went to third on an errant throw by the Vidor catcher.

Parker Seago walked on a three, two pitch too and had an uncontested steal of second base. With one out Parker Freeman was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Little Cypress Mauriceville.

A strikeout of the next LCM batter brought Clay Raney to the plate with two outs. Clay worked the count full before lining a drive to left for the game winning hit scoring Scheiderer from third.

"Give these guys over here the credit. They played their tails off all game long. I'm very proud of them. At any point they could have given up and they didn't. It was awesome to see," Bear Coach Hunter Hagler praised after the game.

The Bears and Pirates played at Vidor on Thursday, March 28, and Vidor won 1-0 in a great pitchers' duel. Hagler applauded Scheiderer for pitching a gem of a game but Jacob took the tough loss for LCM.

This week Little Cypress Mauriceville (1-3) traveled to Lumberton on Tuesday. The Bears play at home in Don Gibbens Field against the Raiders on Friday, April 5.

The West Orange-Stark Mustangs on Tuesday of last week won their first game in district competition in over two years. The Mustangs beat the Jasper Bulldogs 6-5 in ten innings at Ronnie Anderson Park.

Starting pitcher Josh Robledo pitched three scoreless innings for WOS before Christian Anderson came on in relief in the fourth. Two runs in the bottom of the fourth gave WOS the initial lead of the game.

Jasper scored four unearned runs in the top of the fifth off of Christian Anderson who had relieved Robledo in the fourth. West Orange-Stark replied with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead 5-4 after five innings.

Grayson Gregory and Will Lee both hit doubles to drive in runs. Lee, Anderson, Blade Williams, and Cortez Robertson each had two hits in the game for WOS.

Diego Ibarra took over on the mound to start the sixth inning after nursing an injured finger on his glove hand since the first week of March. Ibarra pitched five innings giving up one run and striking out nine Bulldogs to get the win for the Mustangs.

After Jasper tied the game with a run in the seventh West Orange-Stark scored the winning run in the tenth inning without the benefit of a base hit. Williams was hit by a pitch, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ibarra, and Blade scored when the Bulldog pitcher fielded a grounder by Gregory but made a throwing error trying to get a force out at second base on Lee who had been intentionally walked.

The second game of the series was played on Thursday, March 28, in Jasper. The Mustangs grabbed leads of 2-0 and 7-2 before the Bulldogs rallied for a 12-8 win.

The West Orange-Stark offense had several strong contributors. Noah Robles and Blade Williams both scored a pair of runs, Christian Anderson and Zach Nation each had two hits, and Grayson Gregory drove in two runs.

West Orange-Stark (1-5) has its bye this week. The Mustangs play at Silsbee on Tuesday, April 9, and back at Ronnie Anderson Park against the Tigers the following Friday.