Bossier sweeps BRCC

SHREVEPORT — Home runs doomed the Baton Rouge Community College while getting swept in a doubleheader Sunday at Bossier Parish Community College.

Relief pitcher Chris Back’s two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the Cavaliers to a 3-1 victory after starting pitcher Preston Gray’s RBI single tied the game in the seventh inning, sending the first game to extra innings.

And in the second game pinch hitter Steven Smith hit a three-run home run in a six-run fifth inning and Mark Hatten went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs as Bossier Parish won 13-5 after the Bears (0-3), who had been on the road since Thursday, led through the first four innings.

“We played really good baseball except for that last game,” BRCC coach L.J. Dupuy said. “We started out real good, but we couldn’t sustain it.”

BRCC next plays in a doubleheader Friday, when the Bears host Illinois Central College at 4 p.m. and then face Southwest Mississippi Community College at 7 p.m. at Pete Goldsby Field.

After the Baton Rouge kids clinic at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Pete Goldsby Field, the Bears will face Illinois Central for a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.

In the first game Sunday, Gene Genevay’s RBI single gave BRCC a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning, a lead that stood until Bossier rallied in its last at-bat.

In the second game, Tanner Sheets (2-for-4), Cade LeBlanc (2-for-4, two RBIs) and Bryce Sibille (2-for-3) all had two hits apiece and the Bears matched Bossier hit for hit, with 10 apiece.

But allowing three errors and giving up the home runs hurt BRCC, which scored four runs in the top of the first and led 5-4 through four innings until the Cavaliers came through with six runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.