By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

BRIDGE CITY — The Bridge City Cardinals clinched a playoff berth after beating the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns 5-2 in District 22-4A action at Cardinal Field Thursday night.

Peyton Havard was on fire on the mound, going the distance in another win for the Cardinals (17-7, 6-1). Havard went seven complete innings, allowing three hits, no walks and 14 strikeouts on the night. He had one rough inning in the second, but didn’t miss a beat and rebounded quickly showing maturity on the mound. Havard ended the game striking out 11 of the last 15 batters that he faced.

The middle innings were full of each team trading off quick innings and Havard racking up Ks in the process. Havard hit top form after the second inning, bouncing back well after a hard inning. With the offense not hitting well, he did a good job of making sure the Longhorns had no chance at the plate.

Havard used the strikeout well in this game, striking out at least two batters per inning, in five innings. The curveball was biting for him and he felt it, using it in just about every at bat, and as the first two pitches of the game.

Hamshire (8-12, 1-6) jumped up early with the help of a few errors by the Cardinals. Zach Newby hit a hard single to knock in Dustin Porter and Tiler Paine for the game’s first two runs. The two runs reached base on errors and the second run scored thanks to a bobbled tag at the plate as the Longhorns took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Bridge City fired back in the bottom of the third with three runs across the plate. Ryan Ellis was walked in with the bases loaded for the first run, Caleb Dubois and Schuyler Thibodaux were knocked in off an error from the Longhorns as the Cardinals snagged a 3-2 lead after three innings complete.

With all the scoring for the Cardinals, they had no hits to this point, just taking advantage of errors and good baserunning. They did not get their first hit until the bottom of the fifth inning.

Dubois knocks in the next run for the Cardinals thanks to a long sac fly. Cameron Yadon beat the throw home on the play after reaching base on single and being moved around by a hard double by Logan Hamm. The Cardinals moved their lead to two, at 4-2 after five innings.

Luc Hollier came through with an RBI for the Cardinals, driving in Romero from third baseas the Cardinals grabbed the 5-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The two teams will battle again Tuesday when the Cardinals visit Hamshire-Fannett.