District baseball race concludes this week

The final games of the district schedules will be played this week by local high school baseball teams. Though the Class 3A district champion has been decided, the Class 4A race for playoff seeding should go down to the final games on Friday, April 26.

Bridge City and Little Cypress Mauriceville have both clinched a berth in the post season. Seeding positions could change with two games remaining for each of the top four teams all separated by two or fewer games in the district standings.

In first place in District 19-4A are the Bridge City Cardinals after taking two from the Jasper Bulldogs last week. Three errors almost proved costly for the Cardinals at Jasper on Tuesday, April 16, but Slade Landry went three for three with a homerun and Hunter Ford hit a two run double to get Bridge City enough runs in an 8-4 victory.

The Cardinals jumped ahead of the Bulldogs in the first inning on Friday and never looked back winning 10-0 in six innings. Bridge City scored four runs in the bottom of the first with CJ Riojas, Hutch Bearden, and Slade Landry each getting a run batted in.

Austin Frederick singled to drive in Hunter Ford with a run in the third. Gavin Bodin singled with one out, moved to second on a ground out, stole third, and scored when the catcher's throw went into left field putting Bridge City up 6-0 in the fourth.

Riojas led off the fifth inning with a solo homerun just beneath the scoreboard in left field. One out later Frederick got his second hit of the game, stole second base, and came all the way home when the high throw from the catcher was deflected into right center field.

Bridge City closed out the game in the sixth which Bodin started by grounding a single to center. John Van Huis reached base after being hit by a pitch before Dax Latiolais lined a double down the left field line to score Bodin.

Bearden ended things when he blasted the ball one hop off the fence in right center to score Van Huis from third to make the score 10-0 invoking the mercy rule. Latiolais could have scored easily on what would have been a sure extra base hit by Hutch.

Not to be overlooked was the outstanding pitching by Landon Reeves for the Cardinals. Reeves went all six innings giving up only a single on the first pitch of the game and two walks, one of which was intentional. Landon struck out nine Bulldogs.

Coach Chad Landry is proud of the team effort and contributions by all of the Cardinals that has Bridge City in first place with two games to go. "What I love about this group is that we don't have a superstar. We're not relying on one guy each night to win the game. It's a full group effort. We dress 21 guys and we've got full confidence in all 21 of those guys, and it's somebody different every night. Collectively as a unit they play extremely well together," Landry applauded.

Little Cypress Mauriceville is tied for second place. The Bears enter the final two games tied with Vidor one game ahead of fourth place Silsbee.

LCM remained one game behind Bridge City by taking two games from the West Orange-Stark Mustangs. Both wins were by shutouts.

Landon Richards of the Bears the Class 4A pitcher of the week the second week of April stretched his string of no hit innings to ten. Richards threw three innings without allowing a hit, walking one, and striking out eight Mustangs to get the win in the 14-0 victory by LCM at Ronnie Anderson Park on Tuesday, April 16.

Will Lee got the only hit for the Mustangs with a ground rule double leading off the fourth inning. Jackson Struwe and Marco Bandiero both pitched one inning for the Bears with Bandiero striking out the side to end the game in the fifth inning.

Parker Seago had the biggest night offensively for the Bears going two for four with four runs batted in and two runs scored. Ethan Fry was two for two including a double with two walks driving in two runs and scoring two times, Justin McCarver had two hits including a double to drive in a run, while Parker Freeman also had a two run double.

The scene shifted to Don Gibbens Field on Friday and the result was pretty much the same. Little Cypress Mauriceville won again in five innings 10-0 over West Orange-Stark.

Jacob Scheiderer threw a three hitter and struck out eight in his five scoreless innings on the mound for LCM. Marco Bandiero struck the big blow for the Bears with a homerun driving in four runs.

Six wins in a row the last four all by shutouts has Little Cypress Mauriceville Coach Hunter Hagler feeling very good about his Bears. Hagler expressed, "Everything is starting to come together kind of at the right time. We've got to keep playing day by day though and keep the grind going."

The final week of the regular season has Bridge City (8-2) playing West Orange-Stark (1-9) twice. Tuesday's game was in Bridge City and Friday will be at West Orange-Stark. Two wins by the Cardinals will clinch the district championship for them.

An important series is between second place Little Cypress Mauriceville (7-3) and Silsbee (6-4) which trails LCM by one game. The Bears and Tigers played Tuesday in Silsbee and will be at Don Gibbens Field on Friday.

The Vidor Pirates (7-3) play Jasper (1-9) in their final series. Vidor is tied with the Bears for second place after the Pirates won both games with Lumberton last week to drop the Raiders (6-6) to fifth place in the district standings.

The Orangefield Bobcats won three times last week. The Bobcats clinched the District 21-3A championship for the second year in a row on Tuesday, April 16 with a 6-4 win at Hardin.

Bobcat Freshman Carson Gonzales earned the important win in relief pitching five and two third shutout innings allowing just one hit and striking out six. Kane Smith, Logan Cheek, and Matthew Johnson each had two hits while Camden Fountain drove in three runs for Orangefield.

Orangefield Coach Tim Erickson attributed pitching and defense as why the Bobcats are the district champs. "Filling up the strike zone is the main thing. Our pitchers are attacking the zone inside and out, so it is good to see. When we're playing defense the way that we are like Caleb Fregia making a heck of a play again at shortstop that gives the Bobcat pitchers a lot of confidence," Erickson analyzed.

The other two wins were Bobcat blowouts. In a makeup game Orangefield defeated the Warren Warriors 10-0 in five innings at Paul Cormier Field on Monday. Kaleb Menard threw the first four frames and Colton Myers tossed the final inning as they combined for a no hitter.

Matthew Johnson hit a two run homer with two outs to put Orangefield up 2-0 in the second inning. The Bobcats scored five more runs in the fourth which included three straight marvelous bunts for hits by Kane Smith, Cameron Dearing, and Logan Cheek before Camden Fountain doubled to left center with the bases loaded to bring home all three runners.

Orangefield made short work of East Chambers on Friday winning 16-0 in just three innings. Brycen Tait got the win on the mound allowing one hit in his three innings and striking out four Buccaneers.

Matthew Johnson continued his hot hitting with a double and a single to drive in three Bobcats. Carson Worthy had two runs batted in while Kane Smith, Cameron Dearing, and Logan Cheek each collected two hits for Orangefield.

The final game of the district for the Orangefield Bobcats was played on Tuesday, April 23, at Anahuac. As the district champions the Bobcats will play the fourth seeded team from District 22-3A next week with the location and dates to be decided.