Rosepine holds off Leesville, 13-8

Thirteen runs in three innings were more than enough for Rosepine to take an early 12-run lead at home Thursday night in summer baseball against the Leesville Wampus Cats. Although Leesville (1-5) scored the final seven runs of the game, it was not enough and Rosepine won, 13-8. “We got some timely hitting,” Rosepine head coach Jeff Smith said. “We got some runners on and we really swung the bat well early, got some momentum, got a chance to put some young guys in later in the game.” “It was one big inning (six runs in the second inning), one lackadaisical inning,” Leesville head coach Kyle Walter said. “We chipped away, but we took ourselves out of the game early with one bad inning.” Klint White hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to give Rosepine (4-1 overall, 4-0 in league) a 3-1 lead. Justin Simmons and Brandon Russell both walked and scored on the home run. Six more runs in the bottom of the second inning for Rosepine increased the lead to 9-1. Grant Keel walked and Josh LaValley was a pinch runner. LaValley scored on a Devin Brown RBI-double for the first run of the inning. Brown scored on an Austin Cox RBI-double down the left field line. Cox later scored on a Simmons RBI-single. Simmons attempted to go to second base on the throw, but Leesville catcher Colton Honeycutt threw the ball to shortstop Zack Squyres for the out. After that play, Leesville starting pitcher Jared Williams was relieved, having pitched 1.1 innings, giving up six runs and three walks. Jacob Chambers entered for Leesville and gave up the final three runs of the inning, including a two-run double by John Mark Holliday and an RBI-single by Rustin Woodard. Rosepine scored four more runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 13-1 lead. All of those runs were off of Chambers, who went one inning, gave up seven runs, two walks and recorded one strikeout. Simmons reached on an infield single for Rosepine and scored the first run of the inning on a Russell RBI-single. Russell scored the second run of the inning on a Holliday RBI-single. Holliday and White, who walked, both scored on a two-run single by Woodard. Following Woodard’s single, Walker Dillion came in to pitch for Leesville. Dillion pitched the rest of the game for Leesville, giving up no runs in 3.2 innings, issuing one walk and striking out one. “He (Dillion) did a heck of a job,” Walter said. “He’s a ninth grader this year. He’s full of barbed wire and splinters. He’s a competitor.” Dylan Strickland was the starting pitcher for Rosepine. Strickland went three plus innings, gave up three runs and three walks, recording five strikeouts to help Rosepine keep its lead. “Dylan Strickland, he started,” Smith said. “He threw real well early. He got a little fatigued. We got him out of there.” Late in the game, Smith said there were problems Leesville capitalized on. “They scored several runs on us and made a run late,” Smith said. Leesville scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to cut Rosepine’s lead to 13-4. Brandon Hiatt scored the first run of the inningby singling to center and coming home on a Honeycutt RBI single. Ty Helton scored the second run with a walk and came home on a Kaplan Rolon sacrifice fly. Those two runs were charged to Strickland. Hiatt and Helton reached base when Strickland was pitching. However, Austin Cox took over the pitching duties for Strickland after Helton’s at bat. Cox pitched four innings, gave up five runs, one walk and recorded five strikeouts. Honeycutt scored the third and final run of the top of the fourth inning for Leesville on a Corie Alexander RBI-single to left field. Leesville scored four more runs in the top of the fifth inning to cut Rosepine’s lead to 13-8. Chambers reached on an infield single and scored the first run on a Williams fielder’s choice. Josh Kaiama connected on a two-run triple for Leesville for the next two runs of the inning. On the triple, Mark Johnson, who walked, and Chambers scored. Kaiama scored the final run of the inning on groundout. Leesville’s other run came in the first inning when it took a 1-0 lead. Walter was pleased his team did positive things to come back. “It’s a step in the right direction,” Walter said. “It’s hard to come back from a deficit when you’re down 12 runs.” Squyres walked and scored on a Hiatt RBI-single to left field. The single came on a favorable bounce past the infield. Rosepine is back in action at 6 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Kinder. Leesville hosts South Beauregard at 6 p.m. Monday. OTHER STATISTICS •For Rosepine, White went 3-for-3 with a home run, two singles, a walk, three runs, three RBIs and two stolen bases. •For Rosepine, Russell went 2-for-3 with a walk, double, single, three runs, one RBI and one stolen base. •For Rosepine, Simmons went 2-for-3 with two singles, one walk, two runs, two stolen bases and one RBI. •For Leesville, Alexander went 2-for-2 with two singles and one RBI. •For Leesville, Hiatt went 2-for-3 with two singles, one run, one stolen base and two RBIs. •For Leesville, Honeycutt went 2-for-2 with two singles, one walk and one run.