Westlake's Johnathon Lamberth held the Bunkie Panthers' bats quiet for five innings to allow the Rams to take a 7-3 win in the final game of the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament.
Lamberth allowed only two hits while being charged with one run along with seven strikeouts.
"Johnathon Lamberth pitched great for us," said Rams' head coach Shane Boudreaux. "He threw strikes and kept them off balance with the breaking ball for strikes. He pitched really well for us and gave us a chance to win and that's all you can ask."
Bunkie's starter Jack Fletcher went the distance for the Panthers, but early on was able to keep the Westlake offense at bay. The Rams (3-1) loaded the bases in the first inning with one out, but Fletcher was able to get out of the inning unscathed by forcing an infield fly and a groundout.
After retiring the Westlake batters in order in the second, Fletcher wasn't as lucky in the third inning. Brandon Gary led off with a double down the third-base line. Gary stole home two batters later to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. Tyler Stoddard extended the lead when he scored on a sacrifice bunt by Donovan Alderson for a 2-0 lead after three innings of play.
"We weren't swinging it real good," Boudreaux said. "So when we got base-runners, I tried to make things happen bunting and the hit-and-run. It wasn't always successful, but anytime you move the ball around you have a chance to make good things happen and a few good things happened for us.
"We got the lead and were able to hold on to it."
Fletcher pitched five innings allowing six runs, five earned, on four hits with five strikeouts and five walks.
That score would hold true until the bottom half of the fifth inning. The Rams were able to take advantage of Bunkie's mistakes to score five runs on two hits to extend the lead to 7-0.
"You have to capitalize on when people give you things whether it be a walk or an error," said Boudreaux. "But you have to come up with the big hit every now and again to score a couple of runs to capitalize things like that. We were able to do that in the fifth inning to give ourselves a little bit of cushion and it turned out that we needed it."
The Panthers (2-2) didn't give up despite the time limit approaching and being down by seven runs. Dylan Boatner led off the sixth inning with a double to right and scored on a sacrifice fly by Blake Quirk to breakup the shutout. Bunkie pushed across two more runs on a Ram error and a passed ball but had the rally ended when James Newton was thrown out at home to end the game.
Gary finished the game going 1-for-1 with a double and two runs scored. Zach Vincent added a 1-for-2 effort and an RBI with Ryan Feagin going 1-for-1 with an RBI.
Boatner led Bunkie at the plate going 1-for-2 with a double and Christian Cole added a 1-for-3 effort with another double for the Panthers. Quirk picked up the lone RBI for Bunkie with a 0-for-2 effort with a sacrifice fly.
The Rams will return to action on Tuesday when the travel to Kinder to take on the Yellow Jackets.
Westlake 8, Vinton 3
WESTLAKE–The Westlake Rams used a five-run first inning to take an 8-3 win over the Vinton Lions in the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament.
Trailing 2-0 in the first, Zach Vincent hit a two-RBI single up the middle to tie the game with one out. Devon Miller drew a bases loaded walk to score Donovan Alderson and Kenny Huddle followed with a bunt single to score Vincent. Brandon Gary drew another bases loaded walk from Vinton starter Jeffery Dobbs to bring home Devin Eaglin for a 5-2 lead.
Westlake's Tyler Stoddard roped a triple to left-center to lead off the Rams' half of the second inning. Justin Foster came in to run for the Westlake catcher and scored after Dobbs balked to extend the Rams' lead to 6-2.
Dobbs took the loss for the Lions going one and a third innings allowing six runs on three hits with four walks.
The Rams added two runs in the third inning on two hits for an 8-2 lead.
Vinton (1-2) added a run in the fifth when Dylan Boudreaux hit a single to left. The speedy shortstop stole two bases before scoring on a Westlake error.
Stoddard went 1-for-1 in the game with a triple and two walks. Huddle had a 2-for-3 effort with an RBI while Vincent drove in two runs while going 1-for-2.
Boudreaux and Colton Lavergne each went 2-for-3 for the Lions with Boudreaux scoring two runs.
Ryan Feagin picked up the win for Westlake pitching four innings allowing just one earned run on four hits while striking out five batters and one walk.
The Lions finished the tournament 1-2 but Anderson said that he was pleased with the weekend's outcome.
"This Westlake tournament is a pretty good tournament," said Lions' head coach Bart Anderson. "They always have good teams in it. Getting one out of three, I'm happy. We are still getting our feet under us a little bit. We have a bunch of new kids out this year so we are still trying to find positions and where we need to put them.
"Overall, I'm happy with our performance this weekend."
Vinton 6, LaGrange 3
WESTLAKE–The Vinton Lions picked up their first win of the season with a 6-3 win over the LaGrange Gators in game one of Saturday's action at the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament.
"We pitched well and played good defense," said Vinton head coach Bart Anderson. "We didn't hit well but their pitching was struggling. Overall we were happy getting the win."
Vinton got on the board in the top of the first inning scoring two runs on one hit and a LaGrange error to take a 2-0 lead.
The Gators picked up a run in the bottom half of the inning when Brandon Williams scored on a fielder's choice by Donovan Deville to cut the Lions' lead to 2-1 after one inning of play.
The Lions started to pull away in the second inning. Vinton scored three runs in the inning on just two hits to take a commanding 5-1 lead after two innings of play.
Vinton added another run when Carl Lejeune scored in the third inning on a wild pitch.
Williams scored the second run of the game when he stole home. He stole three bases including home after reaching base on a Vinton error. The Gators added their third and final run of the game in the fourth inning when Antonio Hagans scored on a Joseph Spruel bunt single for the 6-3 final score.
Boudreaux went 1-for-3 for the Lions while Lavernge went 1-for-3 with an RBI and Abshire added a 1-for-2 effort.
Hagans led the Gators at the plate with a 1-for-2 performance with a run scored. Williams finished the game 0-for-2 officially but reached base all three times and stole five bases.
