Louisiana Knights blank Bill Hood

The Louisiana Knights 18s (22-5) defeated the Bill Hood Broncos 9-0 on Tuesday night for the second time this season at Tulane University. Starter Jared Mata (3-1) with a 2.82 earned run average pitched four-shutout innings, allowing only one hit. He recorded four strikeouts and a walk. Reliever Ryan Eades tossed two innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit. Eades, who is hitting .379, also collected a double and scored a run. Ross Hardy threw one scoreless inning giving up two hits.

Garrett Cannizaro, hitting .415, went 2-for-3 with two RBIs to lead the Knights at the plate along with Nick Ray, who also collected two hits. Ray is hitting .340. Scott Fabre had a double with two runs batted in, while Brandon Boudreaux and Logan Gares drove in one run each for the Knights. Cannizaro also made his presence felt on the defensive end from his shortstop position. Bill Hood had the bases loaded in their final at bat. Tyler Koelling hit a hard ground ball, which appeared to be headed to left field for a base hit, but Cannizaro dove to his right fully stretched out and gloved the ball. He threw a strike across the diamond to end the game to keep the shutout intact.

Home One Homes beats Advantage

Home One Homes (Northlake Christian School) downed Advantage Ford (Salmen High), 5-3, in an American Legion East Division game Tuesday at Fritchie Park. Home One Homes (4-2-2) is 3-2-1 in divisional play with two games remaining. Home One Homes also has to finish a contest against Thomas Pump (Slidell High) that was tied at 4-4 when the game was stopped due to darkness after eight innings of play.

Advantage Ford (2-6) is 1-6 in East Division play.

Seth Laigast and Grant McGovern both went 2-for-4 with a run batted in to lead Home One Homes to victory. Taylor Bazzell contributed a second-inning RBI double, and Tyler Clark tallied two runs.

Home One Homes’ first time starter Timmy Broussard earned the victory, going four innings. Broussard allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks. Reliever Juan Diaz went one scoreless inning, allowing a hit and a walk. Brandon Cazaubon pitched the final two innings to earn his first save. He gave up one run on two hits.

Advantage Ford’s Ben Himber went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Matt Moroney collected two hits while scoring a run and driving one in. Eric Cochran posted a sacrifice fly for Advantage Ford’s other RBI. Jeremy Breland and Chris Price drove in one run each. Price suffered the loss.

Piggly Wiggly edges Peake BMW

Piggly Wiggly (Loranger High) slipped past Peake BMW (St. Paul’s) 5-3 Tuesday behind Steven Mercier’s three-hitter in a key American Legion West Division game played at Loranger. Mercier picked up the victory, going six innings, and also went 2-for-3 at the plate.

Loranger remained in first place with a 7-1 division mark, holding a two-game lead over Peake BMW, LLOG Exploration (Mandeville High) and Pevey Realtors (Ponchatoula High), all at 5-3 with two games remaining. Peake BMW is 9-7 overall.

Piggly Wiggly took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth on just two hits. Piggly Wiggly took advantage of three consecutive walks, which forced in three of the four runs. Piggly Wiggly added an unearned run in the sixth before Peake BMW cashed in with three runs in its final at bat against reliever Taylor Abdalla, who replaced Mercier. Peake BMW’s Eric Guidry led off the seventh being hit by a pitch. Patrick Huval and Alex Cuntz drew consecutive walks to load the bases. Guidry notched Peake’s first run, scoring on a passed ball. Following a strike out, Nick Hummel grounded out to first, scoring Huval to cut the lead to 5-2.

John Gremillion reached on an error with Cuntz scoring to make it 5-3. Gremillion advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Abdalla retired Nick Bowers on a ground out to close the game.

Drew Francis, Cuntz and Gremillion were the only Peake players to get hits. Starter Jason Greenleaf pitched three scoreless innings and allowed just two hits with three strikeouts. Reliever Jay Duet (0-3) suffered the loss four runs on three hits in one and one-third innings. Jared Robichaux finished out the game, giving up one unearned run on two hits.