Westlake starts tourney off with rout of LaGrange

The Westlake Rams started their tournament off with a 10-3 rout of the LaGrange Gators on Thursday night in day one of the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament.

The Gators took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning led by a two-run home run by Jarvis Collins over the left field fence.

Westlake quickly answered in their first at-bat of the night. Tyler Stoddard drove a single to right and LaGrange starter Brandon Williams walked the next two Ram batters to load the bases for Ryan Feagin. Feagin hit a sharp grounder to the Gators' second basemen Rolin Piper who made a bad throw to allow two Westlake runners to score for a 3-2 LaGrange lead.

After a walk to Devin Eaglin, LaGrange shortstop Anthony Rigmaiden had trouble coming up with a ball off the bat of Devon Miller to allow Zach Vincent to score to tie the game at 3-3.

Justin Foster followed with a single to right to score Feagin and Eaglin to give Westlake a 5-3 lead after the first complete inning of play.

"It helps to score five in the first," said Rams' head coach Shane Boudreaux. "We needed to do that because we haven't scored a lot of runs this year. So getting five early took a little pressure off of us and helped us drop the butterflies a little bit."

Rams' starter Richie Bagley settled in after getting the lead and allowed only two hits and no runs the next two innings before being pulled in the fourth inning when he reached his set pitch count. Bagley picked up the win allowing three earned runs on four hits with four strikeouts and five walks.

"When we got the five runs, I think he felt a little bit better about it," Boudreaux said. "We gave him the lead and he threw the ball a little bit better. Richie is probably going to be our guy this year."

Westlake capitalized on two LaGrange errors in the second inning for two runs to extend the lead to 7-3.

The Rams added another two runs on two Gator errors in the fourth inning to seal the 10-3 win.

Every Westlake batter reached base in the game with Stoddard leading the way with a 2-for-3 effort with three runs scored. Foster added a 1-for-2 performance with two RBI's and Eaglin finished going 1-for-1 with a double, walk, and an RBI.

Williams took the loss for LaGrange pitching four innings allowing 10 runs on four hits while striking out two batters and issuing five walks.

The Gators defense finished the game with a total of seven errors.

LaGrange will kick off action today at 3 p.m. when they take on Jennings at the LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament. Jennings will take on Vinton at 5 p.m. with Westlake and Vinton playing at 7 p.m.

NOTE: Saturday's schedule for the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament: Vinton/LaGrange, 9 a.m.; Bunkie/Jennings, 11 a.m.; Bunkie/LaGrange, 1 p.m.; Westlake/Jennings, 3 p.m.; Westlake/Bunkie, 5 p.m.

Bunkie 20, Vinton 2
WESTLAKE–A big inning for the Bunkie Panthers in the second inning was enough to put away the Vinton Lions in the first game of the Bobby LeTard Shelter Insurance/Westlake Ram Baseball Tournament on Thursday afternoon.

Bunkie put up 11 runs in the second inning on six hits and four Vinton errors to distance themselves for the win.

The Lions started the scoring off in the first inning when Timothy Abshire roped a double to right to score Dylan Boudreaux.

Bunkie answered in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single by Blake Quirk. Quirk was plated on a Vinton error to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead after one inning of play.

The Lions tied the game when Jeffery Dobbs hit a shot to left for a solo home run in the top of the second. After three hits in the first two innings, Vinton was held hitless the remaining two innings of the game.

Bunkie added seven runs in the third inning on six hits and one Lion error.

Quirk led all hitters with a 4-for-4 performance with two runs scored and an RBI. Jack Fletcher went 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored, and an RBI.

Jeffery Dobbs led the Lions at the plate with a 1-for-2 effort with a home run and an RBI. Abshire finished the game going 1-for-1 with a double and a walk.

The Lions will take on Jennings at 5 p.m. and host Westlake at 7 p.m. today.