By Jake McCoy
After three straight seasons, making the state tournament in Sulphur, the DeQuincy Tigers had an unexpected second round exit at the hands of the Delcambre Panthers buy a final score of 6-5 in nine innings.
The atmosphere was intense as both fan bases from DeQuincy and Delcambre made their presence known and what was a very competitive ball game despite several very questionable calls throughout the course of the game.
The Tigers did not have a single hit until the sixth inning and were down to their final out in the bottom of the sixth in a 4-0 hole when senior Turner Rodriguez ripped one into left center field to get the hit party started, and then Bryce Dyson hit a sacrifice fly to score Noah Pettifield from third to finally put the Tigers on the board. In the bottom of the seventh an error caused by Delcambre allowed Levi Neal to score and then a couple plays later Rodriguez steps up in a big way again with a beautiful line drive to right field that scored Tucker Goza and Rowdy Griffin to tie the game up 4-4 and send the game to extra innings.
Delcambre would score a run in the top of the eighth. However, the Tigers would answer right back on the bottom half of the inning when Rowdy Griffin laid down a sacrifice bunt, which scored Kahle Miller to once again tie the ball game up.
Delcambre would reclaim the lead in the top of the ninth. Unfortunately the Tigers could not respond in the bottom of the half of the inning which ended their season in heartbreaking fashion. What was a fantastic ball game!
Turner Rodriguez was 2-5 with 2 RBIs, Tucker Goza was 2-4, and Rowdy Griffin was 1-3 with an RBI.
Turner Rodriguez pitched 5.2 innings only allowing one earned run and recorded 9 strikeouts.
Grant Rainwater pitched 3.1 innings only allowing one earned run and recorded 5 strikeouts.
Congratulations to the DeQuincy Tigers on a fantastic season!
Delcambre 6, DeQuincy 5
