Game 1 Box Score /
Game 2 Box Score
PINEVILLE – The Louisiana College baseball team is not officially in the American Southwest Conference tournament, but the puncher is hovering over the Wildcats' ticket after a doubleheader sweep of ASC East foe Texas Dallas Friday.
After defeating the Comets (23-13, 9-7 ASC East) 16-0 and 5-4 on Friday, the Wildcats can earn a spot in the playoffs with either a win over Texas Dallas Saturday at noon in the regular-season finale for both teams or with a loss by Ozarks in any of its three remaining games versus ETBU.
Should LC complete the sweep of the Comets, it would assume third place in the ASC East and a trip to the second-place team from the ASC West, which could be Texas Lutheran, Mary Hardin-Baylor or Hardin-Simmons, in the first round of the ASC tournament.
A loss and loss by Ozarks would mean a fourth-place finish for the Wildcats, who would still make the playoffs and travel to whichever of those three teams finished No. 1 team in the ASC West in the opening round of the playoffs.
It was no easy feat for the Wildcats (17-21, 9-8 ASC East) to put themselves in prime position for a playoff berth.
LC had to come from behind in game two of the Friday double header to notch the critical second win.
The Wildcats trailed 3-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but scored three runs in that frame to give themselves a 5-3 lead, one that would be protected by senior pitcher Dustin Tubre (West Monroe, La./West Monroe High).
Tubre (4-3) pitched four innings in relief of started Cole Bishop (Ruston, La./Ruston High) and picked up the win with non earned runs and three strike outs, two of which rang up the first and third outs of the ninth inning.
Bishop, who got the no decision, did his part, going five innings and allowing just three earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts.
Offensively, the star of the show was junior Cody Laprarie (Dry Prong, La./Grant High), who went 3-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI.
Steven Bowman (Hammond, La./Hammond High) went 1-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI while Mike Doughty (Crowley, La./Crowley High) went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Brandt Daigle (Alexandria, La./Alexandria Senior High) went 2-for-3 with a run scored to pace the LC offense in game two.
In game one, it all Wildcats as LC scored two in the first, one in the third, two in the fourth, six in the fifth and five in the sixth to claim a 16-0 victory.
Freshman lefty Anthony VanGessel (Tioga, La./Tioga High) got the win, pitching a seven-inning, complete-game shutout in which he forced 18 fly-outs.
Ironically, in a game in which the LC outfield provided almost all of the outs, it was the same trio of players that were the spark at the plate.
Laprarie, the center fielder, went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and five driven in, while right fielder Jon Michael Kidd (West Monroe, La./West Monroe High) went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI and Bowman, LC's left fielder, went 1-for-3 with two runs scored.
Daigle went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a runs scored, third baseman Steven Davis (Monroe, La./Ouachita Parish High) went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and senior designated hitter Walt McGee (Pineville, La./Pineville High) went 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and two RBI.
Doughty went 1-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI.
