Cardinals and Bobcats are district baseball champs

The post season begins this week for three local baseball teams. Two of the three were district champions one in Class 4A and the other in Class 3A.

The Bridge City Cardinals won their twenty-seventh district baseball title in school history with an 11-0 victory in five innings over the West Orange-Stark Mustangs on Tuesday, April 23. Afterwards the Cardinals attached the number "27" to the left field fence at Chuck Young Field symbolic of the championships.

"It's been a long time coming. Our guys have worked extremely hard. We set a goal at the beginning of the year to get number twenty-seven to change that sign on the wall. I'm extremely proud of our senior class that has led us for the last couple of years, and like I told them in the dugout after the game we don't have just one superstar. It's a complete group effort," Cardinal Coach Chad Landry reminded.

Hunter Ford homered over the scoreboard in left field with one out in the first inning to give Bridge City its first run. Three more Cardinals scored to make the score 4-0 after one inning.

In the second Austin Frederick hit an even longer homerun over the scoreboard with two teammates on base to give Bridge City a 7-0 lead. The Mustangs replaced pitchers as four Cardinals crossed the plate without a hit in the third inning as Bridge City went up 11-0 after three.

Landon Reeves started on the mound for Bridge City throwing three and a third scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Brayton Tregre closed things out with an inning and two thirds to complete the shutout.

West Orange-Stark had a few bright moments in the loss as Christian Anderson pitched the final five outs giving up one hit, allowing no runs, and striking out one. Will Lee had two assists from the outfield throwing out Cardinal base runners in the first and in the fourth innings before robbing Gavin Bodin of an extra base hit also in the fourth. Grayson Gregory had the lone hit for the Mustangs.

Bridge City won its fifth straight district game 13-3 on Friday at West Orange-Stark. The champion Cardinals completed the district schedule with a 10-2 record.

Three pitchers threw for Bridge City. Max Pachar pitched four and a third shutout innings in relief allowing one hit and one walk while striking out nine Mustangs to get the win.

Twelve different Cardinals came to bat in the game and each one of them got a hit or a walk. John Van Huis had three hits with a double and a triple to score two runs and drive in three more. Lorn Little doubled to drive in a run and later scored while Carson Sauceda reached base both times he came to the plate and scored two runs.

The Mustangs scored all their runs in the bottom of the second inning with Diego Ibarra, Zach Nation, and Josh Robledo tallying runs. Keythen Windom, Noah Robles, and Blade Williams drove in their teammates.

Friday was senior night for West Orange-Stark. Jalen Gilmore, William Lee, Cortez Robertson, Zach Nation, Christian Anderson, and Keythen Windom were recognized.

Little Cypress Mauriceville was locked in a tight battle with four other teams for a top seed in the District 19-4A race. Bridge City secured the district championship with its sweep of West Orange-Stark, but second place through fourth place came down to the results in two other series last week.

The LCM Bears played two games with the Silsbee Tigers who trailed the Bears by a game in the district standings while the Vidor Pirates who were tied with the Bears had a pair of games with the Jasper Bulldogs. The Lumberton Raiders had the bye week and needed Silsbee to lose both of the games with LCM for a chance to tie the Tigers and have a one game playoff to determine fourth place.

On Tuesday, April 23, Little Cypress Mauriceville won its seventh straight district game beating the Tigers 8-2 in Silsbee. The win gave the Bears a two game lead over the Tigers going into the final regular season game on Friday.

Landon Richards continued his excellent work on the mound striking out eight Tigers to get the win. Offensive stars for LCM were Marco Bandiero who went three for four with two doubles driving in four runs, and Jacob Scheiderer who also had three hits to drive in three runs.

Prior to Friday's game Little Cypress Mauriceville honored Brice Frenzel its lone senior. Frenzel has been a relief pitcher specialist for the Bears this season.

Two young pitchers faced off on Friday at Don Gibbens Field. Freshman Jacob Scheiderer got the start for Little Cypress Mauriceville against sophomore Matsyn Morris of Silsbee.

Scheiderer retired the Tigers in order with two strikeouts in the top of the first, and led off the bottom half of the same inning with a ground rule double to center. Parker Seago walked and Marco Bandiero singled to load the bases with Bears before Parker Freeman got a base on balls to bring Jacob home with the first run of the game.

A wild pitch thrown should have produced another run for LCM, but the home plate umpire ruled Seago missed home plate coming in from third calling the Bear base runner out. The next two Bear batters were retired leaving runners at second and third.

The one run lead lasted only until the top of the second when the Tigers used a single, an error by the Bears, a walk, and a hit batter to tie the game. Silsbee took a 4-1 lead scoring three times in the fifth.

Little Cypress Mauriceville got a run back in the sixth inning when Bandiero walked, Freeman doubled, and Justin McCarver hit a sacrifice fly to right. Morris induced a pop fly to himself to end the rally with LCM still downed by two runs.

In the seventh Morris struck out the side all swinging to preserve the 4-2 victory for Silsbee. Morris had 11 strikeouts in the game allowing two hits and a walk after the first four Bears reached base in the first inning.

The results from Friday's games kept Bridge City (10-2) in first place a game ahead of Vidor (9-3) which finished second in front of third place Little Cypress Mauriceville (8-4). Silsbee (7-5) captured outright fourth place and the final playoff berth one game ahead of Lumberton (6-6).

Bridge City opens the playoffs against fourth place Liberty of District 20-4A. Little Cypress Mauriceville matches up with Livingston the runners up in District 20-4A.

The Orangefield Bobcats wrapped up their District 22-3A championship run with a 5-1 win on Tuesday, April 23, at Anahuac. The Bobcats won thirteen straight after losing the district opener against Kirbyville on March 5.

Kaleb Menard of the Bobcats pitched a one hitter in a complete game with 10 strikeouts. Cameron Dearing led the offense going three for three with a walk, scoring a run, and driving in two runs.

In a preparation game for the playoffs Orangefield beat Lufkin Hudson 5-4 on Friday, April 26. Caleb Fregia produced three runs with his two hits while Dearing, Kane Smith, Logan Cheek, and Camden Fountain all contributed hits.

Brycen Tait started on the mound for the Bobcats going three and two third innings without allowing an earned run. Carson Gonzales pitched in relief. Garrett Rawls got credit for the win throwing the final two innings without allowing a hit and striking out two.

Orangefield will play the Woodville Eagles in the opening round of the state baseball playoffs. The Eagles are the fourth place team from District 21-3A.