Pilots complete series sweep against Northwood
March 17, 2012
SHREVEPORT, La. - The no. 6 LSU Shreveport Pilots dominated the second game of Saturday's double header at Pilot Field after winning in their last at-bat in the first game as they downed the Northwood Knights by final scores of 3-2 and 16-6 to move into second place in the Red River Athletic Conference Standings.
GAME 1
Jared Mortensen (6-0) won the second game of the series out-dueling Northwood's ace Clayton Woodruff (5-1). Mortensen did not get his usual 10 plus strike performance but did enough to silence the NU offense holding them to just two earned runs on six hits with only one walk and seven strikeouts. Woodruff suffered the loss with the final run of the game charged to his line as he allowed five hits, three walks and one strikeout in six innings of work.
The Pilots wasted an opportunity to take the lead in bottom of the sixth inning as Manny Estrada led off the inning with a double and then Stephen Hobbins sacrificed him over to third with a bunt but the offense couldn't bring him in to score. Mortensen retired NU in order in the seventh to set the Pilots up for the game-winning run in the bottom of the inning.
Tyler Alton started the game-winning rally in the seventh with a walk on four pitches that led to the departure of NU starter Woodruff. Kade Billeaudeaux then layed down a sac bunt to move Alton into scoring position and then Ridge Gonsoulin hit a walk-off double off the left field wall to win it for the Pilots.
Gonsoulin, Estrada, and Kym Barthel had multi-hits for the Pilots.
GAME 2
LSU Shreveport (23-3, 11-3 RRAC) jumped out front with a two-run homer from David Perkins in the bottom of the second for the lead to only be erased two innings later when Northwood (15-8-1, 5-3-1 RRAC) rallied for three runs to take a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.
The Pilots took advantage of four consecutive walks to start the innings as they scored a total of seven runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding 9-3 lead after four innings of play. Gonsoulin delivered the biggest hit of the inning with a two-run single to right field.
LSUS added six more runs in the bottom of the fifth as Manny Estrada tagged his first homer of the year, a three-run shot, to make it a 15-4 Pilot advantage after five innings of play leading to their second walk-off win of the day as Devin Greco singled home the game's winning run in the bottom of the seventh for the ten-run rule.
Logan Norris (3-1) picked up the win for the Pilots tossing five and a third innings scattering seven hits while allowing six runs, five earned, five walks and seven strikeouts. Norris cruised through the second and third innings with low pitch counts as he retired six of the seven he faced in the those innings.
Drew Middleton finished the sixth for Norris and then Jake Kight tossed a scoreless seventh inning.
Kade Billeaudeaux was two for three at the plate with two RBIs for the Pilots and two runs scored while Gonsoulin was two for five with three runs batted in and two runs scored. Estrada was two for three with three RBIs and three runs scored while Devin Greco was two for four with a pair of runs batted in. Perkins drove in a pair with his homer as he finished one for three.
Northwood reliever Brad Day (1-2) suffered the loss allowing four earned runs in one inning of relief work.
The Pilots will next play a double header on Tuesday afternoon at Pilot Field against the University of New Orleans beginning at 4:00.
