On Friday, January 6th, the Gators played their third home game of the season, and their first home game at Barbe High School. Dominant relief pitching kept the Gators in the game, but it wasn’t enough as they fell short in the 11th inning to the Baton Rouge Rougarou.
Ethan Ocegura started on the mound for the Gators and had his longest outing of the season. He faced 4 batters in the 1st inning and walked Blaise Priester who was left stranded at first base. He then started the 2nd inning with a leadoff double from Casey Sunseri, which eventually scored from a single hit by Carter Allen. Ocegura then gave up a home run to Blaise Priester in the third inning to make it 4-2. Later in the game, he gave up a 2 run blast over the right field wall which tied the game up at 4. Ocegura finished the day with 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R. 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
The offense started out hot in the first 2 innings, as they had a total of 5 hits and plated 4 runs. In the 1st inning, Aaron Morgan started things off with a single, Landon Hunt was walked, and then Davis Meche was hit by a pitch to load up the bases for the cleanup hitter Jake Smith. Smith hit a 2 RBI single that scored Morgan and Hunt, and the Gators lead 2-0 with no outs. Going to the second inning, Colton Ryals got his first hit of the season to get things going. Aaron Morgan would get his second hit of the ball game that advanced Ryals to third. Morgan would then be caught stealing, but Davis Meche stepped up with a clutch 2 RBI single to put the Gators up by 3.
For the Gator offense, they only had one hit after the third inning, and the game went to 11 innings. The last hit of the ball game for Lake Charles came in the 7th inning from Aaron Morgan, his third hit of the night. He was then left stranded after all 3 outs were strikeouts that inning.
The Rougarou pitching staff was stellar, tallying 14 strikeouts and only walking 5 batters the entire game. Hayden Stallings came in relief for Connor Wilson who got through 2 innings. Stallings pitched until the 6th inning and gave up 1 hit and tallied 3 strikeouts. Cole Plowman, Fabian Hernandez, and Jackson Jones all pitched 1 inning relief and had a combined 1 hitter, and 6 total strikeouts. Reagan James closed the game in the 11th inning and finished with 2 strikeouts to his name.
In the 11th inning, Prescott Marsh came to the mound for the Gators. He gave up a leadoff single to Casey Sunseri. He then tallied two strikeouts, but an error from Jake Smith let Rafael Gross score from third to make the game 5-4.
The Gators struck out twice, and a runner stranded to end the game in the bottom of the 11th and they got their second home loss of the season, 5-4.
Lake Charles will take on the Victoria Generals on June 9th and 10th, in a weekend series at Barbe High School. They then will be on the road until Thursday, June 13th when they come back home to play against the Rougarou for a 3 game series rematch.