Jordan Meisner

Fairy Tale Ending Lifts Cats over Jackets

4/28/2018 9:20:00 PM

By: LC Sports Information - Brad Welborn

Box Score

The final game of the 2018 season turned into one for the memory books for the Louisiana College baseball team. With two runners on base and the score tied at nine in the top of the ninth inning, senior Dustin Brown hit his first career home run to give the Wildcats the edge in the 12-9 win over Howard Payne. LC finishes the season with a 20-14 overall record, their second straight 20 win season.

There was plenty of offense to go around in the season final for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Don Shepard Park in Brownwood, Texas. The teams not only combined for 21 runs in the game but pounded out 30 total hits as well. The Wildcats got on the board first with a pair of RBI singles from Duncan Cornfoot and Deauton Delgado in the top of the first. LC scored three more in the second on an RBI single from Clayton Noakes, a throwing error by the Jackets' catcher, and an RBI double from Cornfoot.

Even with five runs in the first two innings of play, the Wildcats found them selves trailing HPU after the bottom of the second as the Jackets score eight runs to answer LC's five in to start the game. After 13 combined runs in the first two innings, neither team put anything on the board for the next two innings, keeping the score 8-5 going into the fifth. That was when LC began to erase the slim HPU lead.

Brady Atkins singled to right to bring home a run in the fifth and a Deauton Delgado 2-run shot in the sixth tied the game at eight. As the Wildcat offense worked back to tie the game, it was the pitching staff that settled down after the crazy first two innings to hold Howard Payne scoreless for five straight innings. Carson Bolyer was a huge part of that run, coming on in the fourth and going the next 5.0 scattering five hits and only allowing one unearned run.

A leadoff single from Steven Pizano in the eighth started the late inning dramatics for the Wildcats and Yellow Jackets. After moving to second on a sacrifice bunt and then to third on a wild pitch, a Konner James fly ball to right was deep enough to put the Cats on top 9-8 at the end of the half inning. A 2-out throwing error in the bottom of the inning though allowed HPU to tie the game once again and send things to the ninth tied at nine.

After coming on in the bottom of the seventh to take over at first base, Dustin Brown walked to the plate for what was potentially his final at-bat for Louisiana College with a chance to give LC the lead in the ninth. Sully Martin singled, stole second the moved to third on a wild pitch walk to Clayton Noakes putting runners at the corners for Brown. A simple fly ball to the outfield would have sufficed with Martin's speed at third, but Brown delivered his first career a home run in his final at-bat to put the Wildcats ahead 12-9. Save artist Phillip Vidrine was able to come in for the bottom of the ninth and get three ground balls to end the game and get his fourth save of the season in the process.

Partially lost in the excitement of the game and Brown's storybook ending was the fact that fellow senior Sully Martin recorded his 63^rd and 64^th career steals and finishes tied with Matt Byrnes for most all-time in the category. Martin reaches the mark exactly one week after breaking the career hits record of 164.
Carson Bolyer (3-1) got a well deserved win in relief going 5.0 inning allowing just one unearned run on five hits with three strikeouts. Brady Atkins, Sully Martin, and Clayton Noakes, the first three batters in the lineup each went 2-for-5 at the late. Clean-up hitter Duncan Cornfoot was a perfect 5-for-5 at the dish for a total of 11 hits from the top four in the order. Delgado and Brown each had long balls in the game and Martin and Noakes each swiped two bases.

The Wildcats finish the season with a 20-14 record and 9-14 mark in American Southwest Conference play. LC completes their second straight 20-win season for just the second time under Coach Mike Byrnes. Stay connected to Louisiana College baseball during the offseason by following @LC_bsb on Twitter. ASC all-conference awards will be announced at the conclusion of the ASC postseason tournament.

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