By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

BRIDGE CITY – The Bridge City Cardinals toppled the West Orange-Stark Mustangs 6-0 Friday night in District 22-4A play at Cardinal Field to complete the series sweep for the week.

The Cardinals (16-7-1, 5-1) defeated the Mustangs (10-13, 1-5) by the same exact score on Tuesday night in West Orange.

The Cardinals stay primed to battle for the number one spot in district, while the Mustangs will need to get wins late in the season to make a playoff push.

Bridge City is tied for first in the 22-4A standings with LC-M. The Bears rallied to defeat Orangefield 9-8 Friday.

With this win, Bridge City’s head coach Chad Laundry notches his 300^th win since taking over as a head coach in what has been a career covered with playoff appearances and multiple deep runs and more to come, including possibly this season.

Peyton Havard, for the Cardinals, was feeling it Friday night with short innings and used the groundball to get out of any situation he found himself in.

Mixing up the two-seam, fastball and curve to get the batters off balance, Havard was dueling WO-S senior ace Chad Dallas and coming out on top and in a demanding fashion. Havard went five and two-thirds innings with seven strikeouts and just two walks, with two hits given up. Jacob Goodman would close the game out to have a combined shutout with just three hits given up all night.

Dallas would pitch the majority of the game for the Mustangs, going five and two-thirds innings on 104 pitches. Dallas recorded seven strikeouts, two walks, 4 runs given up on five hits. He kept the game close, but his offense didn’t give him much support.

The Cardinals got on the board with runs in the bottom of the first. Logan Hamm and Caleb Dubois were both brought in thanks to an error on a Jackson Tims hit with the bases loaded. That’s all they could grab in an inning with eight batters, but left the bases loaded to end the inning as the Cardinals got up 2-0 early.

Bridge City added another run in the second frame thanks to Cameron Yadon’s base running. Yadon reached base thanks to a bunt and stole second base. Dallas would throw two wild pitches that Yadon would take advantage of and score as the Cardinals up their lead to 3-0 after two.

Dubois, with a hard single, drove in Luc Hollier to pad the lead in the fourth to make it 4-0. With Havard on the mound the Cardinals only need a few runs to gain a solid as Havard has had a strong sophomore campaign.

In the bottom of the sixth the Cardinals added more insurance to their lead. Dubois racked up another hit on the night to drive in Hamm from second base. The next batter Schuyler Thibodaux knocked in Dubois with a hard single to left to keep the two out rally going late. That’s all they would get in that inning as the Cardinals took a 6-0 lead after six innings.

Neither team will play next Tuesday due to all the STARR testing being conducted across the state. Both teams will return to action next Friday when Bridge City welcomes in Hamshire-Fannett and WO-S visits Orangefield.