The Sulphur Cyclones had the lead only once, but it was when it counted to take a 7-6 victory over the DeRidder Dodgers on Monday night at McMurry Park.
Sulphur (8-3) came back from a 6-3 deficit in the fifth inning to get the win.
“They swung the bats a lot better,” said Cyclones head coach Blaine Wyninger. “They have been popping the ball up over the past two or three games. I was happy with the way they hit the ball today. They got on top of the ball and made their defense play.”
DeRidder scored six runs, four of which were unearned, in the first five innings to lead Sulphur going into the bottom of the fourth inning.
“Defensively, it wasn’t our best day,” Wyninger said on the errors. “There were a lot of errors that I think we shouldn’t have had, but that’s baseball. You are going to have days like that.”
After Logan LeJeune worked a one out walk to start off the fifth inning for Sulphur, Stephen Pennick drove the ball to left field for a double to give the Cyclones runners at second and third with one out.
DeRidder’s Jordan Buxton hit Sean Wanamaker to load the bases for Kendal Daigle. Daigle plated Troy Scott, a courtesy runner, to make the score 6-4, Dodgers with two outs.
Cody Dardeau doubled down the left field line to tie the game 6-6 and reached third on an error by the DeRidder third baseman. Dardeau gave Sulphur the lead when Matt Pago grounded to DeRidder’s Quinton Touchette. Touchette couldn’t hold on to the ball to allow Pago to reach base and allowing the go-ahead run to score.
Sulphur right-hander Pennick then closed the door for the Cyclones on the mound to allow no runs through the next two innings to seal the win for the Cyclones.
Pennick pitched all seven innings for Sulphur with seven strikeouts and one walk while allowing four earned runs on six hits.
DeRidder took an early 2-0 lead through the first two innings with Buxton scoring on a Sulphur error and Tyler Dunham coming home on a Collin Sandell double to right.
Sulphur tied the game 2-2 in the third inning with the Cyclones scoring two runs on two hits and a Dodger error.
The Dodgers quickly broke the tie to take a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning lead off by a Collin Hanchey double. DeRidder went on to score three runs in the inning on three hits with the Cyclones committing two errors.
