Box Score
PINEVILLE – Did the University of the Ozarks sweep the East Texas Baptist this weekend? That's a question no one on Louisiana College's baseball team will have to ask following the Wildcats' 6-3 win over Texas Dallas, a victory that puts LC back in the American Southwest Conference Tournament for the fifth time in the last six years.

The Wildcats' win on Saturday was the last in a three-game sweep of the Comets (23-14, 9-8 ASC East) and was one that allowed LC (18-21, 10-8 ASC East) to leapfrog Texas Dallas to become the No. 3 seed in the ASC East division.

It was a long way to come for a team that was picked to finish at the bottom of the conference and which started ASC East play on a four-game losing streak.

“I talked to the guys earlier this year about adversity and hitting the wall,” said LC coach Mike Byrnes, who has guided the Wildcats to the postseason in eight of his 10 seasons in Pineville. “We hit the wall hard and I told them that they could either try to climb over the wall, go around it or run right through it. They took a few steps back and ran right through the wall.

“They never lost their confidence, never stopped working, never stopped believing in each other. Now we're going to the playoffs which nobody … nobody … expected.”

Just who the Wildcats will play remains a mystery until the end of the ASC regular season.

All that Byrnes and Company know right now is that they will travel to the No. 2 team in the ASC West, which could be Mary Hardin-Baylor, Texas Lutheran or Hardin-Simmons by week's end.

For the 12 seniors on the Wildcats' roster, there is also the knowledge that their last game at home was a good one. Actually, their last eight home games (all conference contests) all ended with LC on top.
“There's an old saying about not wanting to peak too early,” LC senior pitcher Steven Jones said. “We're peaking at exactly the right time. I think we're playing the best ball we've played in my three years here and we're playing a crucial point in the season.”

Jones, a native of Junction City, Ark., had his own personal vindication in the game Saturday, slamming the door on the Comets and retiring all three batters he faced in the ninth to register his second save of the year, this following an up-and-down senior campaign for the submariner.

“That's what you want, the ball in your hands at the end of the season with a chance to get your team into the playoffs,” Jones said. “It was a great feeling to get it done. My last four or five appearances were the worst of my career so to get us into the playoffs was huge.”

Huge was the perfect way to describe all of the Wildcats' efforts this weekend as LC swept a team that entered the series with a 9-5 mark in conference play, boasting two 4-0, undefeated pitchers and swinging some of the best bats in the ASC.

The Wildcats, however, found a way to hold the Comets to eight total runs on the weekend thanks to a complete game shutout by Anthony VanGessel (Tioga, La./Tioga High) in the first game of a Friday doubleheader, a combined, nine-inning gem by Cole Bishop (Ruston, La./Ruston High) and Dustin Tubre (West Monroe, La./West Monroe High) in the second game Friday and a team effort by freshman Grant Cox (Lake Charles, La./Sam Houston High), Josh Foster (Winnfield, La./Winnfield High) and Jones on Saturday.

Cox did the near unthinkable to improve to 2-0, pitching 6 1/3 innings and allowing just two runs on 15 Comet hits.

Foster pitched a three-up, three down eighth for the set up and Jones closed the game in the ninth.

“Our pitching was unbelievable,” Byrnes said. “That was one of the best hitting teams in our conference and we were able to go right through them. VanGessel laid the foundation Friday morning, Bishop and Tubre did the job Friday night, then today we were able to get a great performance from our freshman and finish it off with Foster and Jones.”

The Wildcats hitting wasn't too shabby, either, as LC scored a combined 27 runs in three games.

Saturday afternoon LC was efficient on offense scoring its six runs on 10 hits while committing no errors.
And, on Senior Day at the ballpark, it was appropriate that a departing senior would provide the spark as second baseman Jonathan Ettinger (Vicksburg, Miss./ Warren Central High) went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Junior left fielder Steven Bowman (Hammond, La./Hammond High) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, junior catcher Anthony Benoit (Baton Rouge, La./St. Michael's) went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI and junior third baseman Steven Davis (Monroe, La./Ouachita Parish High) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Junior shortstop Brandt Daigle (Alexandria, La./Alexandria Senior High) and senior right fielder Jon Michael Kidd (West Monroe, La./West Monroe High) added one RBI apiece in the win.

“You know, things did get tough here at the beginning of the season,” Kidd, who also gunned a runner at third Saturday, said.”We started out getting swept by (eventual ASC East champion) Mississippi College, but we hung with them in two of the three games. We never had a doubt that we could compete with the teams in our conference. We just stuck with it, kept working and got on a roll here at the end of the season."

Photos from this game are available for viewing/purchase at www.enduripix.com/order.html until approximately 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 9.