Pine Prairie is unable to muster offense against Iota

IOTA -- When it rains, it pours.
The Pine Prairie Panthers and Iota Bulldogs had their District 5-3A battle originally scheduled for Wednesday delayed due to a cold front that brought torrential rains.
Even with the extra day, Pine Prairie could never really get going at the plate in Thursday evening’s 8-2 loss to the Bulldogs.
The Panthers (12-10) only collected five hits in the contest and, despite holding Iota to only seven hits themselves, hampered the effort of sophomore starting pitcher Evan Ardoin.
“Iota is the measuring stick in our district,” Pine Prairie coach Dylan Manuel said. “We’ve always played well against them and up to them. We had some mental mistakes in the first inning and scratched runs to climb back in it. In the fifth, the issue we’ve run into all year with mental mistakes. But, we scratched and clawed. When we clean things up, anything can happen for us.”
Ardoin did gave up eight runs in his six-inning complete game. However, only three of those runs were earned and he only allowed one walk in his outing.
“He was extremely efficient,” Manuel said. “He just missed on a couple pitches. He’s only a sophomore, and he competed tonight.”
That, coupled with the effort of Iota starter Gage Monceaux severely limited Pine Prairie’s output. Monceaux struck out seven Pine Prairie hitters in his six innings of work.
“We made him work early,” Manuel said. “We let him get into a groove in the fourth and fifth and I felt that was the difference and killed our momentum. He’s a good pitcher. He just pounded at the knees and it’s hard to hit doubles when they do that.”
All of Iota’s damage came in a three-run first inning and a five-run fifth inning allowed by Pine Prairie, when mistakes seemed to snowball.
Despite the scoreline, Manuel is excited that his team may be rounding into form at the right time.
“We have five games next week, and three at home. I’m excited because we’ve played well over the last week-and-a-half,” Manuel said. “Easter break is always scary as a coach. Hopefully, we have the right mindset as a team.”