Sports

CROWLEY – A three-run outburst in the first inning Saturday had the Iota Bulldogs’ confidence sky high in the third and decisive game of a best-of-three Division II quarterfinal series against Pearl River.
The Rebels, seeded No. 10, played the role of spoiler, however, by scoring 12 runs over the final three frames to upset the No. 2-seeded Bulldogs, 12-5, and advance to the LHSAA State Baseball Tournament in Sulphur.
The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 29-6.
The Rebels improved to 29-10 entering today’s 5:30 p.m. semifinal contest against No. 6 North Vermilion at McMurry Park.
The Bulldogs dropped the opening game of the series on Friday, 5-3, but bounced back Saturday morning and claimed a 4-3 victory over the Rebels in eight innings to set up the winner-take-all contest.
In the finale, the Bulldogs belted out three hits and pushed across three runs in the opening frame to take the early lead.
Jayce Lantier was walked to start the inning and he scored two batters later on a double to center field by Zeke Wall. A two-out triple to right field by Noah Ardoin plated another run and Dom Smith picked up an RBI single one batter later.
That lead stood until the fourth inning when Pearl River erupted for a five-run frame on four hits and three costly errors.
Jacob Lott’s RBI single in the fifth inning and Palmer Fegler’s run-scoring single in the sixth pushed the Rebels’ lead to 7-3.
Iota answered with a single run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
But the Rebels put the game away in the top of the seventh inning with another five-run outburst on two hits, one error, three walks and one hit batter.
The Bulldogs scored their final run of the game in the bottom of the frame on an RBI double by Wall.
Overall, the three-game series came down to pitching and defense.
Iota struggled in both of those categories.
The Bulldogs committed six errors over the three games that led to eight unearned runs.
Pitching was also a struggle with Iota walking 18 batters and hitting nine others in the series.
Of Pearl River’s 20 runs, 12 of them got on base courtesy of a free pass (six walks, two hit by pitch and four errors).
Iota’s leading hitters during the series were Austin Hebert, Zeke Wall and Noah Ardoin, all with four hits each. Hebert also drove in four runs, had two doubles and three RBI and Ardoin logged a triple and two RBI.
Blayton Fontenot and Dom Smith each had three hits. Fontenot had a double and Smith collected two RBI.
Jayce Lantier and Carson Zaunbrecher each finished with a pair of singles.