John Curtis gets off to good district start with win over Rummel

NEW ORLEANS – With experience and talent, defending Division I state champion John Curtis Christian is the favorite to repeat at Catholic League champions for a third straight year and state champion for a second straight year in 2018.

While it will not be easy on either front, the Patriots are off to a good start in District 9-5A.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College commit Ian Landreneau pitched a complete game and Hunter Bufkin belted a two-run home run and an RBI single to pace the Patriots to a 6-3 win over Archbishop Rummel in the district opener for both teams at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium Tuesday afternoon in a game seen live on CrescentCitySports.com.

Landreneau allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits. He walked three and struck out 11, including the final three outs of the game, using 115 pitches.

“I gave up that home run in the first inning but my team had my back the entire game,” Landreneau said. “I knew we were going to come back. All I had to do was to throw strikes. My teammates kept encouraging me to throw a strike on the next pitch. It helped me out.

Rummel broke on top in the bottom of the first inning. UNO commit Evan Francioni drew a walk to start the frame and Ron Franklin belted a two-run home run to left to make it 2-0.

The Patriots got even immediately in the top of the second inning as Tulane commit Logan Stevens walked and Hunter Bufkin homered to left to tie the game.

“I thought was gone when I hit it,” Bufkin said. “It felt good off the bat. It was a fastball up. We knew we would get a good outing from Ian. He will always go out there and compete. Everybody’s going to want to beat us. We’re going to get everybody’s best in every outing. We have a big target on our back. I think nobody can beat us.”

Patriots head coach Jeff Curtis felt Bufkin’s home run was a big momentum change.

“I was proud of the way we responded after falling behind,” Curtis said. “I thought we did a good job of laying off borderline pitches and getting pitches to hit. It’s exactly what we needed to do to answer their two runs in the first inning.”

John Curtis took its first lead in the top of the fourth inning. Stevens ripped a double to center and Bufkin singled to left, scoring Stevens to make it 3-2. LSU signee Will Ripoll delivered a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 4-2.

The Patriots tacked on another run in the top of the fifth. UL-Lafayette commit Dax Ford singled, Stevens walked and with two outs, Jordin Labruzza lined a single to center, scoring Ford to make it 5-2.

Curtis made it 6-2 in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Ford.

Rummel broke through in the bottom of the sixth as Kade Rivera reached on an error, advanced to third on a double by Jake Fury and scored on an RBI single by Chandler Fields to make it 6-3. The Raiders got the tying run to the plate in the inning but Landreneau struck out Lane LeBlanc and got Kolbe Fields to ground out.

The Raiders had a chance in the seventh inning as well, getting two on with one out but Landreneau struck out Rivera and Franklin to end the game.

“That’s vintage Ian,” Curtis said. “He knows how to wiggle off the hook and it seems like he’s at his best when his back’s up against the wall and he’s got to make a pitch. He was able to get to his change-up late in the game and keep them off balance and got a bunch of big outs when we really wanted him to.”

Franklin went five and a third innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits. He walked six and struck out four to absorb his first loss of the season.

“I thought Ron pitched about as well as he could against a lineup as deep as theirs,” Rummel head coach Nick Monica said. “He gave us a chance. We had the tying run at the plate in the sixth and seventh inning. We had a couple of base running mistakes in the fourth inning that cannot happen. We competed well. I am not unhappy with the effort. Their lineup is so good, talented and deep that they are hard to hold down. You cannot ever let up.”

Junior Hayden Elwell pitched the final inning and two-thirds of shutout baseball for the Raiders. Ford was 2-for-4 with an RBI while Landreneau and Labruzza each added two hits for the Patriots, who stranded 11 men on base.

The two teams will meet again Thursday at 7 p.m. at Mike Miley Stadium.

“We’ve got these guys again on Thursday and then we play St. Aug Saturday and Monday,” Curtis said. “We’ve got a bunch of games coming up here so we feel good about where our staff is. There was no way Ian wanted to come out of the game. I was really proud of the way he pitched.”

Final

JCC 020 211 0 – 6 10 2, 11 LOB
RUM 200 001 0 – 3 6 1, 6 LOB

WP—Ian Landreneau (4-0)

LP—Ron Franklin (2-1)

Time of Game: 2:15

2B—Logan Stevens, Dax Ford, Lane LeBlanc, Tyler Cook, Jake Fury

HR—Ron Franklin (1), Hunter Bufkin (1)

SB—Collin Guggenheim

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