The Bridge City Cardinals saw their four-run lead evaporate in one inning, but they immediately rallied to take another lead which they hung onto to defeat the Orangefield Bobcats 7-5 Friday night in Bridge City. The Cardinals’ win puts them in a tie with the Bobcats for third place in the district.
The game featured the ace pitchers for both clubs starting, but neither would make it out of the fifth inning. Bridge City (2-3) got a good relief effort from Kevin Gordon who picked up the victory and Justyn Romero earned a save getting the final Bobcat out with the bases loaded in the seventh.
The Cardinals scored two runs in the second on one hit. Romero got a leadoff walk and went to second on a hit-and-run single by Gordon. Bobcat starter Ryon Stubblefield retired the next two hitters on a fielder’s choice and a strikeout. Jackson Tims hit a grounder to shortstop and Blake Bradley’s throw one-hopped to first which first baseman Brett Fregia could not handle as Gordon scored. A passed ball then brought home Luc Hollier who reached on the fielder’s choice to make the score 2-0 after two innings.
Back to back singles from Schuyler Thibodaux and Logan Hamm started the third for Bridge City. A groundout by Caleb DuBois moved the two runners up a base before another grounder by Romero plated the third Cardinals’ run.
The score went to 4-0 in the fourth when Hollier got walked to lead off the inning. He scored on a two-out single by Gavin Green to right field.
Jacob Goodman started very effectively for the Cardinals with four shutout innings yielding just two hits, two walks, while striking out eight. Things changed in the fifth as Orangefield (2-3) got on the board.
Ryan Deutsch was hit by a pitch to start the rally. Stubblefield made a loud out sending Gordon in left field all the way to the fence to pull down his fly ball. Johnny Armstrong sacrificed Deutsch to second. Successive singles by Dylan Anthony, Fregia, and Mason Gonzalez resulted in two runs for the Bobcats and Goodman being relieved by Gordon.
It did not start well for the Bridge City reliever as Gordon walked the first two batters he faced Kent Michael and Andrew Hoyland which forced in a third Orangefield run. An infield error on a grounder hit by Bradley tied the score at four all.
Hamm got things going in the bottom of the fifth with a walk, and DuBois followed with another hit-and-run single which sent Hamm to third while DuBois took second on the throw to third. Romero singled to left scoring Hamm and sending DuBois to third. Anthony relieved Stubblefield on the mound for Orangefield. Gordon hit a screaming liner to left field on which DuBois tagged up and scored to make it 6-4 in favor of Bridge City. The Cardinals would tally a third run when Green got a bases loaded walk.
The score remained 7-4 entering the top of the seventh when the Bobcats mounted a serious threat again. Gonzales walked and then Michael singled up the middle. Gordon struck out the next two hitters on great pitches, a curve on the outside corner to the first batter and a fast ball on the inside corner to the second.
Just when it looked like the Cardinals could breathe a sigh of relief Deutsch walked to load the bases. Romero took over doing the pitching for Bridge City. The first batter he faced Stubblefield hit a hard hopper to short that was ruled an infield hit scoring Gonzales to cut the lead to two. Romero got the next batter to pop up to third and the Cardinals had a hard-earned 7-5 victory.
The second half of district starts Tuesday, and the Bridge City Cardinals travel to Silsbee to play the Tigers who lost their first district game to the first-place West Orange-Stark Mustangs on Friday. Orangefield plays the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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OF 0 0 0 0 4 0 1- 5
BC 0 2 1 1 3 0 X- 7
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