The Louisiana Knights 17/18s finished the Thunder Baseball Tournament in Lake Charles and Beaumont, Texas with a 4-1 record, falling to the Louisiana Legends 18s 4-2 in Sunday’s championship game played at Lamar University in Beaumont in the Battle of the Borders.

Knights’ starter Logan Peterson (4-2) went four innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits. Reliever Randy LeBlanc went two innings, giving up one earned run on two hits. Peterson led the Knights at the plate, going 2-3 with both runs batted in. Elisha Settoon collected two singles in three at bats. Brady King (.329) went 1-2 and scored a run, while Michael Pustanio produced the Knights’ other hit and scored a run.

The Knights (12-19) earned a place in the championship game, defeating the Longhorns 8-0 in six innings earlier Sunday in the semi final game behind Trey Marino’s complete-game, two-hitter. Marino (1-4) struck out three and walked one. Marino also produced a hit and drove in a run. Cody Warford went 3-3 to spark the Knights’ 14-hit attack. Peterson went 2-3 with two runs batted in while, Brady King went 2-4 with two runs scored and stole two bases. Justin Viger (.485) went 2-3 and scored twice, while Seth Laigast delivered a hit and drove in a run. Pustanio and Settoon contributed hits and drove in one run each. Randall Meyer also had a hit and scored a run. In Sunday’s first of three games, the Knights downed Slugger-White 8-1 as Meyer hurled four innings to post the victory. Meyer (2-1) allowed one earned run on four hits, lowering his earned run average to 1.91. He registered six strikeouts with five walks. Reliever Keller Douglas tossed one inning of hitless, scoreless relief. King and Settoon both went 2-3 with a run batted in and scored one to help spark the victory. King stole two bases and the Knights collected five stolen bases in all. Marino and Tyler Clark drove in one run each.

In Saturday’s game, the Knights 17/18s downed the Texas Steel 7-3 with King leading the offensive attack, going 2-3 with an RBI, two runs scored and three stolen bases as the Knights accounted for eight successful steals in the game. Warford had a hit, scored twice and stole a base. LeBlanc and Douglas stole two bases each with Douglas scoring a run. Starter Hunter Ham (1-2) picked up the victory, going four innings. He gave up two earned runs on six hits. Douglas pitched one inning of hitless, scoreless relief.

The Knights opened the tournament Friday, blasting the Texas Storm 13-2 in four innings in Lake Charles with Meyer wielding a hot bat with five runs batted in. Meyer had an inside-the-park grand slam in the second inning and later added an RBI single, while scoring two runs and stole two bases. The Knights being aggressive on the bases were successful, stealing 10 bases. Clark, King, Marino and Settoon drove in runs. LeBlanc (3-2) started for the Knights and went three innings for the victory, allowing just one hit. He notched five strikeouts with three walks. Laigast closed out the game, retiring three of the four batters he faced, recording two strikeouts and a walk.

The Knights 17/18s accumulated a total of 29 stolen bases during the five-game tournament without being caught.

The Knights have stolen a total of 62 bases, while being thrown out 20 times this summer. The Knights upped their team batting average to .241 with their 4-1 performance.