Hahnville was one of few local teams fortunate enough to get a week’s worth of game action through last week’s constant rain, with the Tigers hitting the road to Lake Charles for tournament action.
The results saw the Tigers cool off from a torrid start, going 1-3 over a two day, mad dash of a tourney — because of the statewide bad weather, the tournament was condensed to two days of action Saturday and Sunday. The toughest part of that, perhaps, for the Tigers is that though the weekend yielded three losses, it could have easily been a three win outing if not for a break or two. HHS lost two games that came down to extra innings.
“We weren’t ready to play,” Baudry said. “The whole weekend … I couldn’t put my finger on the reason why. The unfortunate thing we fought back in two of those games, from 5-0 and from 7-0, but the mistakes we made early cost us those games ultimately.”
Still, Hahnville (10-4) got to play a lot of baseball where most local teams had opportunity to play very little, if at all.
“The quality of competition obviously is a factor,” Baudry said. “It was a tough trip, but the experience is invaluable. All four teams were of tremendous quality.”
“We were fortunate that we were scheduled to play in Lake Charles this particular weekend,” Baudry said. “We played on two fields, at Barbe and at Sam Houston, that were very nice. The games were well-played, well-pitched and all of the teams featured really good hitters.”
The first of the tournament’s two extra-inning games was an extra innings 9-8 loss to St. Thomas More.
The Cougars captured the win on a Brennan Langlinais RBI single in the top of the 8th inning. Hahnville fell behind 7-0 in the game, but a five-run fifth inning helped HHS surge back to tie things up.
Austin Perrin led Hahnville at the plate, going 4 for 5 with two RBIs.
Hunter LeBlanc went 2 for 2 with two RBIs. Braxton Dufrene went 2 for 5 with two RBIs.
Mason Templet led St. Thomas More, going 3 for 5 with an RBI.
The second of the two heartbreaking losses was an 11-10 loss, again in extra innings, to host Sam Houston. Chris Colley scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning after a Hahnville fielding error.
Hunter LeBlanc went 2 for 6 with three RBIs to lead Hahnville. Pat Phelan went 2 for 5 with two RBIs. Christopher Haggard paced Sam Houston at the plate with two hits and three RBIs.
The Tigers fell 4-1 to Barbe in the tournament opener at Barbe Saturday, as pitcher Adam Goree held HHS to three hits while striking out eight.
But Hahnville scored a big win over Evangel in the second game of the day, winning 7-3 in part on the back of a strong pitching performance by Tigers starter Bryce Hargis, who allowed three runs on seven hits while striking out seven.
Phelan and Perrin each drove in two runs for Hahnville. Dane Wise went 2 for 2 with an RBI.
The Tigers shifted their focus this week to the Gerald Oubre Memorial Tournament. Oubre was a teacher and coach at Hahnville High School.
The tournament is held in honor of Oubre, who played baseball for four years at Hahnville from 1957-1961 as well as at Southeastern University in Hammond.
Hahnville was slated to face Zachary, Byrd, Holy Cross and West Ouachita.
“We’re going to try to get as many games in as possible (due to the weather).”
After that looms a big one: Hahnville will host archrival Destrehan in the District 7-5A opener for both teams on Tuesday.
Baudry acknowledged the importance of the game, but also said it can’t draw too much of his team’s focus with up to four tough opponents before Tuesday.
“As important as that game is, it’s very important that we bounce back and play well right now,” Baudry said. “We have to perform well in the games in front of us at this tournament.”
Be the first to comment