By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

LITTLE CYPRESS — The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears beat the West Orange-Stark Mustangs 6-2 at Don Gibbens Field in District 22-4A action Friday afternoon.

The Bears (20-8, 7-3) exploded in the fifth inning to get past the Mustangs (3-15-1, 0-10), in a close district battle.

Despite leading the Mustangs in the hit column, the Bears were unable to find runs as Daquarius Gipson pitched his way out of multiple situations early on where the Bears could of easily taken advantage. Gipson’s ability to pitch into popups and groundouts really saved him and his team time and time again.

The offensive turnaround for the Bears would be the bottom of the fifth inning. The Bears finally started to move runners around after collecting six hits before the frame. A rally that started with three back to back singles really caught fire as a couple of errors and sac flies from 10 batters would create a three-run cushion heading into the last two innings of play.

The Mustangs would strike first with a hit to a hole to score the game’s first run. Jacob Dominguez would lead off with a walk and take second base on a wild pitch. Justin Veitch hit one between first and second to score Dominguez from second. The Mustangs only got one, but took an early 1-0 lead over the Bears.

LC-M threatened in the bottom of the fourth with two hits from Hunter Perkins and Austin Smith but Gipson would get the Mustangs out of the situation and hold the 1-0 lead for themselves through four innings.

Veitch drove in another run on a hit in the top of the fifth. Kaleb Istre singled to lead off the inning and got moved around by a couple of Bears errors to get to third base. Veitch would hit a hard grounder to let Istre score. The Mustangs lead 2-0 heading to the bottom of the fifth.

The Bears scored their first run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jordan Alexander, Ty Shugart and Taylor Gilbert would all single to load the bases for Max Dileo. Dileo would hit one to short and after it was bobbled everyone was safe, scoring Alexander from third base to make it a one-run game. Anthony Bandiero would keep the rally alive with a walk to bring in Shugart to tie the game.

LC-M continued the no-out rally after a Mustangs error. Perkins would hit a high pop fly to right and fall as Gilbert would run in home from third base to take the lead. Carter Claybar would take a pitch between the shoulder blades to drive in Zach Crummel, who pinch ran for Dileo for the next run. Ty Moreland would knock a single to drive in Bandiero from third for their fifth run of the game as the Bears took a commanding lead after thebottom of the fifth to propel them to a 5-2 lead over the Mustangs.

That wouldn’t be all for the Bears this game as Dileo smacked one for an RBI in the sixth. Shugart drew a lead off walk and Krummel would pinch run for him. Krummel would steal both second and third base to set up Dileo. A shot to left center would score Krummel from third easily and increase the Bears lead to 6-2 after six complete innings.

Taylor Gilbert started on the mound for the Bears and Dileo, who tossed the final four innings, picked up the win.

The Bears finished with 11 hits while the Mustangs had three.

The Bears will visit Hamshire-Fannett Tuesday while the Mustangs will be seeking their first 22-4A win at home against Lumberton.