John Burson
Eunice High opened the baseball season with a a 4-0 home victory over David Thibodeaux of Lafayette in a game that highlighted outstanding pitching performances.
Luke Andrepont took the mound for Coach Scott Phillips’ Bobcats and limited David Thibodeaux to just one hit in five innings of work.
Andrepont recorded seven strikeouts and issued just two walks before being replaced on the mound by Austin Phillips in the sixth inning.
Phillips earned the save by retiring the last seven batters. Phillips struck out two and issued one walk in his two innings of work.
David Thibodeaux starting pitcher Elijah Marks limited the Bobcats to only five hits and three runs in his five innings of work.
Marks struck out nine and issued four walks before being relieved in the sixth inning.
The Bobcats took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second.
Deondre Gallow drew a walk to open the inning and advanced to third when Seth Venable reached base on a throwing error.
Gallow scored when Ian George reached base on an error and he later scored when Tyler Darbonne drew a walk with the bases loaded.
The Bobcats added a third run in the fourth inning.
Darbonne singled with two out and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Jayden Brasseaux singled to score Darbonne.
The Bobcats created a two-out threat in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a double by George with two out, but Marks retired the side to keep the score at 3-0.
John Christian Lejeune opened the sixth inning with a double against the Thibodeaux reliever to set up the final Eunice run.
Lejeune reached third base on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout off the bat of Josh Youngblood to give the Cats a 4-0 lead.
Phillips, Lejeune, Brasseaux, and George collected doubles in the game for the Bobcats.
Marks had the only hit for David Thibodeaux with a double off Andrepont in the fourth inning.
Eunice 4, OC 3
In baseball action in the Perry Pitre Ford Jamboree, Eunice claimed a 4-3 victory over Opelousas Catholic.
The Bobcats opened the scoring in the second inning when Andrepont doubled with one out.
Gallow followed by drawing a walk to put runners at first and second.
Lejeune singled to advance both runners with Andrepont scoring to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings were held in check by Eunice pitching over the first four innings, but they managed to score three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 3-1 lead in the six-inning contest.
The Bobcats battled back in the bottom of the fifth inning with George ripping a double to start the inning.
Phillips drew a walk and stole second base before George scored a run on a wild pitch.
Phillips stole third base and later scored on yet another wild pitch to tie the score at 3-3.
The Vikings had a chance to take the lead in the top of the sixth after Darbonne got the first out but issued walks to the next two batters.
But Darbonne struck out the next Catholic batter before he retired the side on a fly ball to left field.
That left the Bobcats with a chance to win the game in the bottom of the inning.
Andrepont reached safely to open the bottom of the sixth a single and he would reach second base on a wild pitch.
The next hitter struck out, but Andrepont would advance to third on yet another wild pitch and score the winning run on another wild pitch.