The Hahnville Tigers have caught fire.
Hahnville came up just one win shy of a clean sweep at the annual Gerald Oubre Memorial Baseball Tournament over the weekend, posting three wins – the Tigers have now gone 8-1 in their past nine games and outscored opponents Peabody and H.L. Bourgeois by a combined 36-1 margin to close the tournament on Saturday.
HHS defeated Peabody 20-1 and H.L. Bourgeois 15-0 on that day, and on Thursday it bested Hanson 11-0. On Friday, the Tigers fell just short of completing a comeback against Brother Martin, falling 8-7.
It brings the Tigers to an overall record of 12-6. Hahnville began the season with a dramatic win over Rummel – Koa Romero’s sixth inning solo home run lifted the team to a 1-0 victory. That win was the first of a 4-0 start for the Tigers – and a significant stretch of wins, with Rummel (11th), Riverside (7th) and Walker (9th) all ranking high in their division in power points.
But the Tigers then dropped their next five to a similarly tough slate of foes – back-to-back losses in a series with Dutchtown, then to Ruston and Neville – the first two of those rank 7 and 10, respectively, in Division I non-select.
But since then, Hahnville’s taken off, and done so by winning in a variety of ways – first with a 14-1 win over Chalmette, then a 2-1 win over Dunham (6th in Division III-select), and then a 15-14 slugfest over Zachary – perhaps the win of the season for Hahnville thus far, over a Broncos team ranked 2nd in Division I non-select.
That win over Zachary saw Hahnville hold off a furious comeback by the Panthers at the Jay Patterson Shootout tournament. This game lived up to the tournament moniker. Hahnville scored eight runs in the second inning to build an 11-1 lead – a bases clearing three-run RBI double by Brayden Fontenot highlighted several big hits in the inning.
But that lead began to fade quickly as Zachary scored 12 runs over the fourth-through-sixth innings, including a six-run bottom of the sixth that closed the deficit to 1. Hahnville gave itself just enough breathing room in the top half of that inning – a two-run homer by Fontenot and a solo shot by Romero pushed Hahnville’s run total to 15.
Landen Teague struck out the final two Zachary batters of the day to earn the save for his team.
Fontenot posted the biggest statline on a team full of them here – he was perfect at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a walk, four RBIs and five runs scored. He doubled and homered. Romero went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and a run scored. Luke Heiden went 1-for-4 with three runs scored and Teague was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a double.
The Tigers were able to breathe a bit easier in a quick 20-1 win over Peabody – a 17-run second inning will have that effect. Luke Eusea went 3-for-3 with two doubles three RBIs and three runs scored. Landen Parrish was 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs. James Franks went 1-for-2 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Carson Revere, Caleb Ducote and Noah Martin each drove in two runs. Parker Mosley pitched three one-hit, one-run innings to earn the win.
Noah Hogan earned the win Saturday over Bourgeois, going three innings of shutout ball. Luke Heiden drove in two runs to lead the offense.
