The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The high school baseball teams are entering the final stretch of the district schedule. Four games over the next two weeks will determine if the teams will be eligible for the post season.

Little Cypress Mauriceville is riding a four game winning streak which has put the Bears in great shape to make the playoffs, and they still have a good shot at the district championship. Last week LCM shutout the Jasper Bulldogs in both games the two teams played.

Rain postponed Tuesday's game to Thursday, and Junior Landon Richards was brilliant tossing a no hitter against the Bulldogs striking out 16 and walking two in seven innings. The Bears won 7-0 for their third straight victory at that time.

Richards was potent with his bat as well getting two hits and driving in two runs. Jacob Scheiderer provided a two run triple while Marco Bandiero and Jackson Struwe both had two hits in the victory.

The teams played at Jasper on Friday, April 12, and Little Cypress Mauriceville got a one hitter from freshman Jacob Scheiderer and reliever Brice Frenzel beating the Bulldogs 11-0 in five innings. Scheiderer struck out five Bulldogs in his four innings on the mound and Frenzel struck out the side in his lone inning.

Bandiero and Richards were the hitting heroes again for LCM. Bandiero banged out two hits including a double, drove in two runs, and scored twice. Richards ripped two hits and had two rbis.

First place Bridge City split its two games with the Lumberton Raiders last week. Both games went down to the wire with the visiting team pulling out the game in the last inning.

The Cardinals lost 7-4 on Tuesday in eight innings at Bridge City. Lumberton scored three runs in the eighth greatly aided by three walks and two errors committed by the Cardinals.

Bridge City turned the tables on Friday by scoring four runs in the seventh to beat the Raiders 7-3 at Lumberton to snap its two game losing streak. Cardinal pitcher Landon Reeves threw a complete game with eight strikeouts and allowed just one earned run to get the win.

The Cardinals rapped eight hits including two each from CJ Riojas, Hutch Bearden, and Gavin Bodin. Slade Landry's two run double was the big hit during Bridge City's four run rally in the seventh.

The West Orange-Stark Mustangs lost a pair of games last week to the Silsbee Tigers. The first game was postponed at Ronnie Anderson Park from Tuesday to Thursday and was a tough 5-4 loss for the Mustangs.

Pitching ace Diego Ibarra of the Mustangs had a rough first inning with the Tigers scoring four of their five runs only two of which were earned. West Orange-Stark outhit Silsbee six to three but left seven runners on base compared to just three Tigers left stranded in the game.

Will Lee and Grayson Gregory both had two hits for West Orange-Stark. Mustangs Lee and Gregory were joined by Christian Anderson and Ibarra with a run batted in apiece.

Friday's game at Silsbee went the Tigers' way from the first inning when they scored four runs. With the score 6-2 the Tigers added five more runs in the sixth to wrap up the scoring. Blade Williams, Gregory, and Ja'Veon Rubin had the only hits for the Mustangs.

The District 19-4A standings have gotten very tight at the top. Bridge City (6-2) is in first place just a game ahead of Vidor (5-3) and Little Cypress Mauriceville (5-3). Lumberton (7-3) plays its final district series this week with Vidor. Bridge City plays two games with Jasper (1-7), and LCM plays West Orange-Stark (1-7) twice. Silsbee (6-4) has the bye this week and plays Little Cypress Mauriceville next week to finish their district schedule.

Rain on Tuesday postponed Orangefield's game with Warren until this week. The first place Bobcats won their only game of last week 5-0 at Paul Cormier Field over the Buna Cougars on Friday.

Star pitcher Brycen Tait was excellent again throwing seven shutout innings for the Bobcats. Tait walked no batters, allowed only three hits, and struck out three Cougars.

Kane Smith and Carson Worthy both had three hits in Orangefield's 5-0 win over Buna to keep the Bobcats in sole possession of first place in District 21-3A

The Orangefield offense was led by Carson Worthy and Kane Smith with three hits apiece. Two of Worthy's hits were doubles. Bobcats Logan Cheek, Matthew Johnson, and Caleb Fregia played stellar on defense.

"We knew Buna was going to be good coming in because the Cougars have been playing well the last couple of games. We had to have the mind set of not getting caught up like we did the last time and knowing the Cougars were coming to play. Brycen (Tait) located his fast ball really well tonight, worked out of two really big jams which was good to see because when we get in a playoff run that's what's going to happen. He'll have to work out of some jams and he did that tonight," Bobcat Coach Tim Erickson commented.

This will be a busy week for Orangefield with the makeup of the rain out against Warren on Monday followed by road games at Hardin on Tuesday and Kountze on Friday. The Bobcats' final District 21-3A game will be Tuesday, April 23, at Anahuac.