By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

WEST ORANGE — The West Orange-Stark Mustangs toppled the Bridge City Cardinals in a tough one with a score of 4-3 at Ronnie Anderson Park Tuesday night to remain all alone in first-place in the District 22-4A standings with two regular season games remaining.

Senior starting pitcher Jack Dallas was a big part of the win going the long haul to help his team keep their slim lead.

The win pushes the Mustangs to 19-3 overall but more importantly 8-0 in 22-4A play. Meanwhile, the Cardinals dropped to 12-10 overall and 3-5 in 22-4A play.

For the Cardinals they used six pitchers on the night. The starter was Caleb Duois, who went one inning allowing two runs, and one hit on the night. Peyton Havard threw for two outs, giving up two runs off of one hit. Taron Burch threw for one and a third innings with no runs or hits allowed and two strikeouts. Kevin Gordon threw for one batter giving up a walk on that batter.

For the Mustangs the list is a bit shorter. Jack Dallas started the game and lasted six and one third innings giving up three runs, five walks, and 10 strikeouts on the night. Ryan Ragsdale came in with one out in the seventh inning to nail down the save.

The Mustangs came out firing early in the first. BB Teezeno led the game off by reaching first off of an error by the Cardinals. Tezeno stole second base on the next at bat, KJ Miller would strike out but Tezeno would steal third base off of the pitch. Chad Dallas knocked Tezeno in with a hard line drive down the left field line, reaching second base himself. Jarron Morris pinch ran for Jack Dallas at second, Chad Dallas came up next and knocked him in off of another error by Bridge City as the Mustangs led 2-0 after one.

The Cardinals responded with a run of their own. Brady Coulter reached base on a walk, Kevin Gordon pushed him around to third on a single to left field. Gordon attempted to steal second but was thrown out, while that happened Coulter stole home as the Cardinals got on the board.

WO-S found success with two outs in the bottom of the second inning. Blake Robinson got on with an error from the second baseman. Robinson stole second base, Tezeno reached base with an error from the shortstop scoring Robinson on the play. KJ Miller got a hard single to left to knock in Tezeno from second base.

The Cardinals went to work in the top of fourth inning. The Cardinals drew three consecutive walks to load the bases up for Kevin Gordon. Gordon hit it hard to short scoring one run, but the shortstop for WO-S threw it wide and a second run scored on the play. Justyn Romero and Luc Hollier were the scoring runners on the play as the Mustangs were able to hold on to a slim 4-3 edge.

The Cardinals enter the top of the sixth still down 4-3 needing to at least score once to keep the game going. Starter Jack Dallas, still in pitching for the Mustangs, kept the Cardinals at bay all six inning up till this point. Dallas started the inning for the Mustangs with a strikeout, after reaching the maximum amount of pitches Ryan Ragsdale came in to relieve him and picked up where he left off striking out the next two batters to finish the game.

West Orange-Stark edge out this victory and look towards Friday to keep it rolling as they travel to Orangefield while the Cardinals return home to host Hamshire-Fannett.