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By Caleb Adams

Orange Leader

BRIDGE CITY – The Bridge City Cardinals took care of the Vidor Pirates 11-1 at Chuck Young Field in District 22-4A action Friday night.

The biggest issue the Pirates (9-13, 2-5) had was the amount of walks their pitching staff would give up. The Pirates issued 18 walks to the Cardinals (12-9-1, 4-3), responsible for all three runs in the sixth inning, and another in the second inning.

The Cardinals would leave a lot of runners on base, but would have plenty of chances to get runs on the board to capture their fourth straight win.

Slade Foreman was the starting pitcher for the Cardinals. He went five and a third innings on 85 pitches, giving up one hit, three walks and had three strikeouts on the night while giving up one run. Foreman allowed his defense to work, with a lot of flyouts and groundouts to have quick innings. He wouldn’t finish the game, but was a big reason the Pirates had trouble all night long at the plate.

Offense didn’t really pick up until the bottom of the fifth when the Cardinals ignited their bats and started a rally for five runs. Foreman would get things going with a big three-run bomb, and would be followed up by a Sam Carpenter two-run bomb to really put it on the Pirates. Before that inning the Cardinals only had two hits, so the sudden offense was needed to seal the game in their favor.

The Cardinals got the game’s first run in the bottom of the second inning. JT Fielder started with a single, and with two outs the Pirates would walk Jude Danks and Draven Marlow and would hit Foreman to drive in Fielder from third base. That’s all they could find, while leaving the bases loaded as the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead heading into the third inning.

The Cardinals added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Marlow drew another walk, along with Foreman getting hit by another pitch that would put two runners on. Brice Swanton put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third. Carpenter hit it to the shortstop, allowing Marlow to score from third on the play. Kade Benoit kept it going with a single up the middle to score Foreman from third base as the Cardinals took a 3-0 lead heading into the top of the fifth inning.

Foreman helped himself big time with a bomb to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning. JS Bearden and Marlow drew walks, and with two outs Foreman would come up to the plate. Foreman squared one up and launch the ball over the left field fence for a three run homerun to add to their lead. The inning would continue with a walk to Swanton, bringing up Carpenter with two outs. Carpenter hit a high fly, just fair and just over the left field fence, for a two run homerun. That would be it, but the Cardinals added five to their lead, going up 8-0 over the Pirates heading into the sixth inning.

The Pirates would find their first run in the top of the sixth. Ty Vincent, Austin Cadroy and Tyler Gray all drew walks with one out to load the bases. Quinten Root hit a dribbler to third, but the ball would be bobbled allowing Vincent to score from third base. That’s all they would get as the Cardinals led 8-1 heading to the bottom of the sixth.

The Cardinals added to their lead even more in the bottom of the sixth inning. Fielder, Bearden and Danks drew walks to load the bases followed by another walk to Marlow, which would bring Fielder around to score. Foreman got hit by another pitch for his fourth walk of the night, to drive in Bearden from third base. Again, a walk would be issued to Swanton for the third run to come in and finish the game, thanks to the ten-run rule as Cardinals ended it 11-1 over the Pirates.

The Cardinals will venture to first-place Orangefield to take on the Bobcats Tuesday while the Pirates return home to tangle with Lumberton.