By Lori Lyons, Rougarou Writer
The Baton Rouge Rougarou’s Texas road trip got off to a rough start Friday night.
The Seguin River Monsters attacked the Rougarou for 11 hits and took advantage of two errors and a couple of other miscues to take an 11-0 victory at Smokey Joe Williams Stadium. Four Seguin pitchers held Baton Rouge to seven hits and struck out 10. They walked only two.
The Rougarou’s pitchers were a bit more generous, allowing 11 hits, walking six and striking out only one batter. Only four of the River Monsters’ runs were earned. Starter Gavin Green gave up three runs, all earned, on five hits, walked one and struck out one in 4 1/3 innings of work and took the loss.
The Rougarou offense struggled as well. Derrald Moore Jr., moved to the leadoff spot, went 3-for-5. Mozell Little III had two hits. Brady McGee had one hit, as did Josh Shelly – a double, the only extra base hit of the night for the Rougarou.
“We didn’t play defense and we didn’t hit,” Rougarou coach Jeff “Rooster” Southall said. “I take the blame on this one. I very obviously didn’t have our team ready to play and start this road set well enough.”
Especially disheartening to Southall was the seventh inning, in which the Rougarou gave up eight runs on five hits, two errors, two walks, a passed ball and two wild pitches.
“We should have been out of that inning twice due to defensive miscues, before any runs were scored,” Southall said. “A good lesson was learned today. We have to come to compete every day or games like this will happen. Flush it and move to tomorrow in Victoria.”
The Rougarou play at Victoria Saturday night at 7 p.m. and at Brazos Valley on Sunday at 7 p.m.