Pilots Baseball wins in extras to take series
February 16, 2013
SHREVEPORT, La. - Ridge Gonsoulin came through when the Pilots need him most as he blasted a walk-off single nearly out of the park scoring Kym Barthel from third as the no. 2 LSU Shreveport Pilots past the Culver-Stockton Wildcats 6-5 in 11 innings at Pilot Field on Saturday afternoon.
Ben Suit (1-0) picked up the win as he was the fourth Pilot pitcher of the day logging three solid scoreless innings allowing no hits and struck out one in his walk-free performance. Riley Spencer did a good job as the middle reliever logging two and two thirds scattering three hits and surrendering no runs before giving the ball to Suit in the top of the ninth.
Both teams had plenty of chances to win the game as they stranded a combined 21 base runners. Culver Stockton (5-5) led most of the way scoring single runs in the first and third innings until Kade Billeaudeaux's RBI-single tied the game at two in the bottom of the third inning after Brandon Cooksey's sac fly brought in the first run of the inning.
Culver-Stockton (5-5) rallied for three runs in the top of the fifth inning but the Pilots grinded their way back to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth on another Billeaudeaux RBI-single.
The bottom of the 11th was the magic inning for the Pilots as Kym Barthel laced a single to center and then Reed Lavallee got on the bases with a base hit to right to put runners at the corners with one out and that led way for Gonsoulin to rip the winning hit that just missed going out of the ballpark. Gonsoulin was the first Pilot hitter of the to get the ball over the right fielder Danny Carroll for CSC who made eight put outs in the game including three outstanding catches that kept the Pilots from scoring, if not for him the Pilots would have had this game in the bag at least middle way through.
The Pilots had four hitters with multi hits in the extra inning affair with Gonsoulin going 2-4 including the game-winning hit which was his only RBI, Reed Lavallee was 2-6, Billeaudeaux was 3-5 with two RBIs and Kym Barthel was 2-4. Cooksey drove in a pair of runs but was hitless in four trips.
Zach Engelbrecht (0-1) suffered the loss allowing the game-winning run in the bottom of the 11th after tossing three and a third allowing five hits, one walk and one strikeout.
LSUS will take on Southern Arkansas on Tuesday night at Pilot Field beginning at 6 p.m.
