Baseball: Brother Martin completes sweep of Rummel, Hammond wins seventh straight

Area Prep Baseball Report for Thursday, Mar. 16

It was no fluke.

Brother Martin edged Rummelto open district play Tuesday at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.

On Wednesday, the Crusaders traveled to Metairie for the rematch, facing Tulane commit Giancarlo Arencibia.

Brother Martin was more than up to the challenge, once again beating the Raiders by a run in a 3-2 victory.

On Tuesday, it was Cole Navarro doing the job on the mound with Patrick Laiche coming on for the save.

On Wednesday, it was Gavin Simeon who gave a strong start with Laiche again coming on for the save, though this one was tougher.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Lenny Cline tripled to right field with one out, putting the tying run at third base.

Laiche then struck out Anthony Mouney and got Tulane commit Evan Burg to ground out to secure his second save in as many days and a huge victory.

Brother Martin jumped on top in the opening frame on doubles by Ryan Darrah and Frank Randol to take a 1-0 lead heading to the bottom of the first inning.

The Raiders took the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Gavin Nix led off with a single before Brock Bullinger reached on an error. Lenny Cline singled to load the bases. Brogan Blum then hit a sacrifice fly to deep left, scoring Nix to tie the game at 1-1. Anthony Mouney followed with an RBI single, scoring Bullinger to give Rummel a 2-1 lead.

Brother Martin came right back to tie it in the top of the third inning. Darrah singled, stole second and scored on a two-out, RBI single by Eli Booth to tie the game 2-2.

The Crusaders took the lead in the top of the fifth inning as Randol tripled off the wall in center field and scored on a deep sacrifice fly by Reece Roussel to make it 3-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, Rhett Centanni doubled with one out and Gavin Nix walked.

Simeon went five and a third innings, allowing two runs on four hits. Patrick Laiche came on for the second straight day to pick up the save, going an inning and a third, striking out four. Laiche came in with two on and one out in the sixth inning and struck out consecutive batters to escape the jam.

The Crusaders had many chances to open up a huge lead but stranded 10 men on base.

Brother Martin (10-5, 2-0) opens a district series against John Curtis Christian next Tuesday.

Rummel (11-6, 0-2) opens a three-game series at St. Paul’s Thursday.

FINAL
BM 101 010 0 3 9 1, 10 LOB
RUM 020 000 0 2 5 0, 5 LOB
WP—Gavin Simeon (3-0)
LP—Giancarlo Arencibia (2-1)
SV—Patrick Laiche (3)
Time of Game: 2:09

Hammond stayed hot, scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to rally past De La Salle 8-5 at home for its seventh straight win.

The Cavaliers scored single runs in the second and third innings to take a 2-0 lead before the Tornadoes took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the third and added a run in the fourth inning to make it 4-2. De La Salle tied it with two runs in the top of the fifth and took a 5-4 lead with a run in the top of the sixth, setting the stage for the winning rally by Hammond.

Konnor Graham including homered, tripled and drove in three runs while Ian Trahan doubled and drove in three runs for the Tornadoes. Payne Petrolia had two hits and scored a run while Kaleb O’Hara and Joseph Williams each had a hit and an RBI.

Fleming picked up the win for Hammond.

The Tornadoes (12-2) will travel to French Settlement next Monday.

Area Prep Baseball Results from Wednesday, Mar. 15
Archbishop Hannan 14, French Settlement 0
Brother Martin 3, Archbishop Rummel 2
Hammond 8, De La Salle 5
Holy Cross 15, Karr 3
Independence 13, Kentwood 2
Mullen (CO) 11, Thomas Jefferson 1
Patrick Taylor 7, Salmen 6
St. James 6, Bonnabel 2