Patriots rout Pirates

The North Vermilion Patriots (15-1, 2-0) and the Kaplan Pirates(5-13, 0-2) squared off for the second time this week, and the first time around it was a pitchers dual that ended in a Patriots 2-0 victory on Tuesday.

The game on Thursday was nothing like the game on Tuesday.

The Patriots used a a big five run first inning and five run third inning to defeat the Pirates by the final score of 11-3.

“We came out and swung it,” North Vermilion Head Coach Jeremy Trahan said. “I told them before the game we need to come out here and put five spot up on them early, and that’s exactly what we did. We just came out ready to hit. We hit the ball
hard and on a line and gave our pitcher some runs to work with.”

The first five batters for the Patriots all reached base safely and all five of them scored in the top of the first inning to give pitcher Ryan Meaux a five run cushion before he ever took the mound.

When Meaux did take the mound he didn’t need much run support.

Meaux came out and pitched six of the seven innings.

In those six innings, he only allowed three runs, two earned, on only nine hits.

Meaux was also able to strike out nine Pirate batters.

“They (Kaplan) put a few good swings on him,” Trahan said. “He (Meaux) was able to keep throwing strikes, and had a very good day on the mound.”

The Pirates were able to get hit, they just couldn’t get a string of hits together.

The Pirates could never seem to get in a rhythm to score more than one run at a time.

“It’s amazing what when you throw strikes and play defense,” Pirates Head Coach Sam Taulli said. “We did none of that. One good thing is that we didn’t get 10 runned. They tried to stay in the game, and they fought back, which is good to see from
your team.”

The top hitters for the Patriots were Taylor Abshire who was 2-for-4 with a double. Ryan Thompson was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Donald Comeaux was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Hopefully for Trahan and the Patriots they can continue to see their bats perform at this level.

“It has been up and down season so far with the bats,” Trahan said. “We have had a couple of games where we hit well, and then we don’t. The trick is to try and find a way to hit like this all the time, but as long as we continue to get good pitching
and sold defense we will be all right.”

Andy Bullard
Sports Editor