Much like in football, it's hard to win in baseball if your defense spends most of the game on the field.
That's what happened to DeRidder Tuesday night, as Sam Houston's Philip Menou faced the minimum 21 batters in hurling a one-hit shutout and leading the visiting and top-ranked Broncos to a 9-0 win over the Dragons.
"We played defense the whole night," DeRidder coach Chad Menard said afterward. "We were on the field the whole night, three up, three down all night."
Chase Kelly collected that lone hit, a single in the second. But he was doubled off when the Dragons had a hit-and-run play on and the ball was popped up.
Sam Houston coach Brad Book lauded his pitcher. "He (Menou) did a really good job for us, I was really proud of him," he said. "We haven't played in a week and I was hoping he wouldn't have a set back, and he didn't."
On the mound for the Dragons was Samuel Peterson, throwing his 90-plus fastball, and he held the Broncos in check for most of his 6 innings.
Sam Houston got one in the top of the first on a Skylar Barrentine was hit by a Peterson pitch, he then stole second and scored on an error.
Peterson hurled a scoreless second, but Sam Houston struck again in the third, when Andrew LaFosse walked and then scored on Evan Powell's single.
The Dragons suffered some bad luck in the fifth, when Powell and Menou both walked before scoring on a liner off the bat of Dyllon Johnson that sailed over a slipping Josh McBride's head in left field.
Powell rapped a two-RBI double in the sixth inning, scoring Chase Jaubert and Barrentine to make the lead 6-0.
The Broncos added three runs in the top of the seventh on two errors, a walk, and a double.
The bottom of the seventh went just like the rest of the game: Rashad Robinson hit a fly out to center, Jordan Bartlett hit a soft liner right to second, and the game ended on Samuel Peterson's deep fly out to center.
"They have a solid club," Menard said afterward, "You have to play a great game to beat them."
The win ups Sam Houston's record to 15-3, 2-0 in district play, while DeRidder drops to 10-9, 1-1 ahead of a matchup with Eunice on Thursday in Eunice.
DeRidder, La. —
