Trying to gain any footing in the District 5-3A baseball race is treacherous at times. Just ask the Mamou Demons and the Pine Prairie Panthers.
Both clubs suffered tough losses on Thursday afternoon, as the Demons came up just short in a 6-3 loss to the Church Point Bears and the Panthers fell hard to the Iota Bulldogs 15-4.
Mamou drops to 11-17 on the season and 3-8 in district play. The Demons were scheduled to host Church Point on Saturday and take on Northwest tomorrow at home.
Meanwhile, Pine Prairie falls to 16-10 on the year and 6-5 in league competition. The Panthers were to travel to Iota on Friday and to Crowley tomorrow to continue district action.
Here is a rundown of those two games played.
Mamou vs.
Church Point
The two teams did not muster any offense at all in the first inning of play. However, the Bears were able to pick up four big runs in the bottom of the second after holding the Demons scoreless in the top half of the inning.
Mamou cut the lead in half in the top of the third. With one out, Gavin Pommier drew a walk and moved to second base on a single off of the bat of Daylon Ardoin.
Kayden Serie walked to load the bases. Pommier would score on a sacrifice fly from Blake Boone. An error with Tucker Rougeau at the plate, brought home Ardoin for the final run of the at bat.
Neither team was able to do any more damage on offense until the bottom of the fourth when Church Point plated two more runs to go up 6-2.
The Demons final run came in the bottom of the sixth when Devin Boone walked, moved to second on a hit by pitch and scored on a single by Mason Reed.
Iota vs. Pine Prairie
The Bulldogs scored early and often in their take down of the Panthers. Iota scored three runs in the first, three in the second and one in the third to take the early 7-0 lead.
The Bulldogs added another run in the sixth and tacked on seven more runs in the seventh inning en route to their win.
All of Pine Prairie’s runs came in the bottom of the seventh with the game well in hand. With one out, Jordan Ardoin doubled. Joel Franks reached on a error. Both Ardoin and Franks scored on a double by Cole Thomas.
Thomas reached third when Nick Ortego took first on an error. Two walks in a row scored Thomas and Ortego for the final runs of the game.