Lori Lyons, Rougarou Writer
For the second night in a row, the Baton Rouge Rougarou seemed to have an answer for the Victoria Generals. But for the second night in a row, the Generals broke a late-game tie with a big inning to send the Rougarou reeling.
With the game tied 4-4, Victoria rallied to score nine runs in the seventh inning on four hits, two errors, three walks and a hit batter – all with two outs — to take a 13-4 win at Riverside Stadium.
Baton Rouge finished the game with five hits off of six different Generals pitchers. Lane Hutchinson went 2-for-4 with a double and one run scored. Ethan Menard also went 2-for-4 with a homerun, his second of the season. Brennan Lambert added an RBI.
Pitcher Hunter Draper got the start and took the loss. He threw five innings, gave up three earned runs on seven hits, walked none and struck out four. Grayson Gates and Ethan Brister relieved but couldn’t hold on to the lead, giving up 10 runs — only one of them earned — on six hits and four walks.
The Rougarou jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when J.T. Taylor walked and advanced and scored on a series of wild pitches.
After giving up two runs in the bottom of the second, the Rougarou tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth on Menard’s solo homerun.
Baton Rouge added two runs in the fifth inning on Derrald Moore Jr.’s single, Hutchinson’s double, a groundout by Hebert and a sacrifice fly by Lambert.
The Generals added one run in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the game at 4-4.
Then things fell apart in the bottom of the seventh for the Rougarou. The Generals sent 12 batters to the plate and scored nine runs, on four hits with two errors.
The Rougarou will travel to Travis Field to play the Brazos Valley Bombers Saturday night at 7:05.
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