It was de-ja-vu all over again for the three Jackson Parish high school baseball teams.  Like earlier in the week when Weston, Quitman and Jonesboro-Hodge all lost games on Monday, and only Weston won on Tuesday, the same thing happened on Thursday and Saturday. As a result, the three parish teams ended the week with a combined 2-11 record in the games played. 

The good news is that despite the tough week, the power rankings of each weren’t affected that much. Weston, now at 9-9 on the year, continued to claim the highest rating of Jackson Parish teams, sitting at #3 in Division V among “non-select” schools while Quitman and their 7-6 record is at #8. Both carry high rankings due to the rough gauntlet of games that Weston head coach Joey Kemp and Quitman skipper Joe Lockhart scheduled for their teams. Of the 31 combined games that the two district 1B squads have played 26 have been against teams from higher classifications.

Both squads competed in the Northwood Tournament this Thursday and Saturday with Weston losing to Class 4A Minden 9-6 and Quitman falling to Class A St. Frederick’s of Monroe by a 4-3 margin in opening games. On Saturday, Quitman fell to Class 3A Evangel 7-4 while Weston salvaged the weekend by beating tourney host, Class 4A Northwood -Shreveport 10-8 in a thrilling finish. The Tigers of Jonesboro-Hodge, now under the direction of new head coach Kris Cash, are at #35 in Division IV with a 1-10 record after losing to Saline 13-3 on Thursday and dropping a double header to Dodson on Saturday by 9-8 and 23-3 scores.

Saturday, March 16th Games:

Weston 10 Northwood-Shreveport 8: With the scored tied at 5-5 heading into the final inning, Weston exploded for five runs in the top of the 7th inning and then stranded the tying runners on base to hold on for the stirring victory over the 4th ranked team in Division 1 among “select” schools. The decisive inning began with Drew Browning and Colton Blundell sandwiching singles around a fielder choice groundout on a bunt by Braden Theriot that saw Browning out at second base. Cooper Delaney then reached on an error that scored Theriot followed by a single by Tait Henderson that scored Blundell and gave Weston a 7-5 advantage. Jacob Gill then drew a walk and JTy Henderson reached on the second error of the inning to score Delaney. Cole Tolar then got hit by a pitch that forced Tait Henderson in setting up a single by Drew Browning, who led Weston with 3 hits on the day, that plated Gill with the fifth run of the inning. Northwood made a rally on the strength of having two batters get hit by a pitch and a pair of errors to draw to within 10-8 with runners on second and third base but Sawyer Watkins coaxed a ground ball to second to end the threat and give Weston the win. Earlier on, Northwood took a 4-0 lead after two innnings of play but Weston tied the score in one swing of the bat, a grand slam homerun by Braden Theriot that scored Browning and Tolar who had singled and Bryce Zehr who got on base thanks to one of the five errors Northwood made on the day. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Weston (9-9)	0	0	4	0	0	1	5	10	11	3
Northwood (12-5)	1	3	0	0	1	0	3	8	5	5

Evangel 7 Quitman 4: The Wolverines lost their fourth straight game when Evangel of Shreveport scored three runs in the top of the 7th inning to break a 4-4 deadlock in Quitman’s final game of the Northwood tournament. The Wolverines took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning using a keen eye at the plate and timely hitting. Kace West and Ian Tilley opened the frame with a walk and a single followed by Braden Hobbs drawing another walk of the inning to load the bases. Pete Simonelli then singled to drive in the first run of the game and John Raegan Hasley coaxed the third base on balls of the inning to get an RBI. Hudson Pullig then stroked a single to left field to score Hobbs. Riley Duck led Quitman with three hits. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Evangel (8-9)	0	0	2	0	2	0	3	7	7	0
Quitman (7-6)	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	4	8	3

Dodson 9 JHHS 8, Dodson 23 JHHS 3: Back to back doubles by Pierce Ulloa and John Self in the bottom of the 7th inning  scored two and drew JHHS to within one run with the tying run on second with just one out but Dodson held on by striking out the next two batters to win game one. Game two was no contest as Dodson used seven Tiger errors and 21 base on balls, including 8 batters who got hit by a pitch to score at least four runs in four of the five innings played to win going away. Dodson had taken a 7-1 lead after 4 innings in game one but the Tigers clawed back with four in the bottom of the fifth inning and another in the bottom of the sixth to draw to within one before Dodson scored two in the top of the 7th to extend the lead to three runs. Logan Smith and Ulloa led JH with two hits each with Smith driving in three runs and Duke Tew scoring two. JHHS stole a season best 11 bases with Ulloa swiping three and both Trey Trosclair and Marquis Baker taking two each.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Dodson (3-4)	2	0	0	5	0	0	2	9	8	6
JHHS (1-9)	0	0	1	0	4	1	2	8	8	4

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	R	H	E
Dodson (4-4)	5	6	0	4	8	23	10	3
JHHS (1-10)	0	1	2	0	0	3	4	7

Thursday, March 14th Games

Saline 13 JHHS 3: The home standing Bobcats spotted JHHS to a 3-0 lead then came storming back to score 12 runs in the bottom of the third, including plating five before the first out was made to win going away to improve to 6-1 on the season. The big inning was fueled by five hits, including a triple by Braden Robinson, five free passes by Tiger pitching and 3 errors. JHHS took a 1-0 lead to open the game when Trey Trosclair singled on the first pitch of the game, went to second when Logan Smith got hit by a pitch and scored on an error off a ball hit by Marquis Baker. The Tigers scored two more the next at bat. Landon Boston led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball, stole third and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Dakota Knox who reached base when Saline attempted the play at the plate.  Two passed balls put Knox on third where Duke Tew hit a ground out that scored the run. Bryce Davis also hit a triple for the Bobcats and scored two runs for with Gunner Fontenot, Tony Smith and Bray Corley also scoring twice. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	R	H	E
JHHS (1-8)	1	2	0	0	0	3	3	6
Saline (6-1)	0	1	12	0	x	13	7	1

Minden 9 Weston 6: After Weston tied the score in the top of the 6th inning , Minden came back to plate three in the bottom half of the frame to win the contest that had more swings than a school playground. in the opener of the Northwood Tournament. Weston took a 4-0 lead in the top of the second on the strength of singles by Tait Henderson, Jacob Gill and Bryce Zehr and both Colton Blundell and Cole Tolar reaching on errors. Minden rallied to score six runs in the bottom of the fourth setting up the Wolves sixth inning where Cole Tolar’s single scored Jacob Gill and Drew Williams, pinch running for Tolar, scored on a wild pitch to knot the score at 6-6, setting up the fateful bottom of the frame. It was the bottom of the lineup that kept Weston close as batters 6-9 (Cooper Delaney, Tait Henderson, Jacob Gill and JTy Henderson) scored all the runs for Weston. 

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Weston (8-9)	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	6	9	2
Minden (9-6)	0	0	0	6	0	3	x	9	6	4

St. Frederick 4 Quitman 3: Down 4-0 after four innings of play Quitman made a strong rally attempt but came up just short as the Wolverines left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh inning. Pete Simonelli and John Raegan Hasley hit back to back singles to get final frame started. Then with two outs, the Duck boys, Maddox and Riley both hit RBI singles and Kace West walked to put Wolverines on every base which is where they were left after St. Frederick pitching coaxed a ground out to end the game. John Raegan Hasley singled and scored on a passed ball  to narrow the gap to 4-1 in the fifth inning.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Quitman (7-5)	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	3	9	1
St. Fredericks (10-3)	1	0	2	1	0	0	x	4	5	1

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