Baseball Report: Hahnville outlasts Riverdale, 9-8

BOUTTE – Hahnville has a steep baseball tradition of great successes. Riverdale is trying to build a program of that magnitude.

The upstart Rebels took the fight to the favored Tigers Tuesday afternoon in Boutte but fell just short.

Josh Nunez drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Hahnville to a wild 9-8 victory over Riverdale in a wild contest.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Chipper Baudry was hit by a pit and Hunter LeBlanc walked to start the inning before Cameron Galland sacrificed both to second and third. After issuing an intentional walk to Beau Landry, losing pitcher Kyle Collet struck out Matt Champagne for the second out before walking Nunez on four pitches.

Riverdale outhit Hahnville 12-4 and the deuces were wild for the Rebels, who scored two runs each in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth innings but the Rebels issued eight walks, hit seven batters and committed five errors which proved to be their undoing.

The Rebels came out swinging the bats in the top of the first inning. Collet and Rensuke Higashihama singled and Brandon Baudry singled home Collet to make it 1-0 and Higashihama scored on a wild pitch by Dane Wise to make it 2-0.

Hahnville took the lead with three unearned runs in the bottom of the third inning. Chipper Baudry started the rally with a walk, advanced to second on an error and advanced to third on another error. He scored when Galland plated a run on an infield grounder and Baudry was safe on the throw to the plate to make it 2-1. Champagne tied the game with an RBI grounder to short and Galland scored the go-ahead run on another error to make it 3-2.

Riverdale recaptured the lead in the top of the fourth as Manny Rosado singled, moved to second on a balk, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout to second by Will Flynn to make it 3-3. Alan Castro tripled to right and scored when an infield pop off the bat of Collet was dropped, allowing Castro to score to give the Rebels a 4-3 lead.
The Tigers came right back to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth. Flynn relieved Higashihama on the mound and hit Wise with a pitch. Wise advanced to second on a throwing error and scored on a double to left by Chipper Baudry to make it 4-4.

Riverdale responded in the top of the fifth. Brandon Baudry singled, Eric Chacon reached on an error and Diego Zepeda singled to load the bases. Rosado drove in Baudry with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 before Flynn drove in Chacon with a grounder to short to make it 6-4.

Hahnville responded with two runs to tie it in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out, two-run single by Chipper Baudry to make it 6-6.

The Rebels answered in the top of the sixth as Collet reached on an error, Higashihama had an infield single and Brandon Baudry was walked intentionally to load the bases. Chacon delivered a two-run double to right, scoring Collet and Higashihama to give Riverdale an 8-6 lead.

The Tigers tied it again in bottom of the sixth when LeBlanc reached on an error and Galland singled. Landry was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Champagne drew a bases loaded walk to score LeBlanc and cut the deficit to 8-7. After Nunez lined into a double play, pinch-hitter Max Farrell hit a slow roller to second and beat the throw the first for an RBI single, scoring Galland to make it 8-8.

Nunez pitched a scoreless seventh inning to pick up the win. Wise started and went five innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on nine hits. He walked one and struck out two. Jack Stumbo went one inning, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits. Hahnville (9-6) has won three straight games while Riverdale (7-5), after a 5-1 start, has lost four of its last six games.

Higashihama pitched the first three innings. He allowed three unearned runs and no hits, walking two and striking out seven. Flynn pitched two innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on two hits. He walked two, hit five batters and struck out one.

Chipper Baudry was 2-for-2 with a double and three RBI to pace the Hahnville attack while Brandon Baudry had three hits and an RBI while Champagne drove in a pair of runs. Chacon and Flynn each drove in a pair of runs for the Rebels. Hahnville overcame three errors.

“We are way better than we played today,” Hahnville head coach David Baudry said. “We pressed a little bit at the plate, we got behind and then we didn’t make plays defensive and anytime you do that, it puts a lot of pressure on you. We’ve got to find a way to play better at home at four-o-clock. We’ve been on the road a lot. We have good teams coming in this weekend and we have to ready to play.”

Riverdale head coach Sean Temple was pleased with his team despite the loss.

“I could not be prouder of the way we fought,” Temple said. “They ten-run ruled us last year. Other than the one bad inning and some mistakes, we played well. We ended up on the wrong side of it. The strike zone was interesting in the seventh inning. I thought Higashihama pitched very well but with the pitch count, we had to limit him with three games in two days Thursday and Friday.”

Hahnville opens play in its own tournament Thursday against Brother Martin at 4 p.m. Riverdale will play in the Doyle Tournament Thursday and Friday, beginning with Doyle at 3:30 p.m., followed by a game with Loranger Thursday.

Final
RHS 200 222 0 8 12 5, 7 LOB
HHS 003 122 1 9 4 3, 12 LOB
WP—Josh Nunez
LP—Kyle Collet
2B—Eric Chacon, Chipper Baudry
3B—Alan Castro
Time of Game: 2:17