The Abilene Flying Bison put a scare in the Baton Rouge Rougarou Tuesday night, battling back from a 7-0 deficit to score six runs in the seventh and eighth innings. And they had the tying run on second base in the ninth before the Rougarou scratched up a final out and preserved a 7-6 win at Pete Goldsby Field.
The win broke a four-game losing streak for the Rougarou, who are 13-16 on the season.
Everything seemed to go the Rougarou’s way early in this one. Baton Rouge scored three runs in the first inning after Dathan Cummings walked, Taylor Walters was hit by a pitch and Trip Dobson singled to load the bases. Jacob Keys’ single scored Cummings and Walters. Dobson would score on a bases loaded walk.
The Rougarou added one run in the second to go up 4-0, then added three more runs in the fourth to extend the lead to 7-0. Bryson Jones singled and scored on Walters’ double. Walters scored on a throwing error. Jack Marcantel drove in another run.
But then the Rougarou offense stalled and the Bison took off. Abilene scored three runs in the top of the seventh on two hits, two errors, a walk and a hit batter. Another run was thrown out at home.
Abilene scored three more runs in the top of the eighth inning on two hits and three walks but still trailed by one.
With one out in the top of the ninth, Abilene’s Ryan Lewis singled and stole second, but pitcher Colton Sylvester struck out the next batter and got the last batter to ground out to end the game.
"It was smooth sailing for a while there," Rougarou coach Mike Forbes said. "It's amazing how you bring in a reliever and suddenly the game changes. We didn't do anything to kill ourselves. They just started putting balls in play where we weren't. But we found a way to get the outs when we needed them."
The Rougarou finished with eight hits on the night, two by Dobson. Keys had two RBIs. Walter had an RBI double.
Three Rougarou pitchers gave up seven hits -- including three doubles -- walked four and struck out five. Starter Michael Sutton (1-0) got the win and Sylvester picked up the save.
The Rougarou and the Flying Bison will be back at Goldsby Field Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
By Lori Lyons, Rougarou Writer
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