By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
This was it.
This was the moment Hudson Brignac and Bryson Pierce and the rest of the Benton baseball team had been waiting for. After all of those close games they had played – especially in the playoffs – it seemed only fitting that this was what it all came down to.
One more inning. Three more outs. Zero margin of error.
The Tigers led St. Amant 1-0, but it was the bottom of the seventh inning and Benton had to take the field to keep the dream of a semifinal berth alive.
Nerves? Yeah, a little. “I was about to throw up,” Pierce said.
“But we knew all the preparation was going to pay off,” Brignac said. “Our team was ready.”
But both Brignac and Pierce say they wanted the ball hit to them. “We knew we were going to have to make a play,” Pierce said. “And we were ready to make a play.”
That’s exactly what happened. Ground ball to Pierce, the Benton first baseman.
One out.
Ground ball to Brignac, the shortstop. Two out.
Ground ball to sophomore third baseman Case Jorden. Ball game.
The gloves went into the air, everyone raced to the middle of the infield for the dogpile and the next thing that came to mind was simple.
“Sulphur,” Brignac said. “The next step.”
That next step will be 12-time (and defending) state champion Barbe in the Division I (non-select) semifinals Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at McMurry Park in Sulphur. Barbe is the top seed; Benton is a No. 13 seed.
It’ll be a challenge, to be sure, but that’s what this whole season has been for Benton. The Tigers have only five seniors, a low number for a Class 5A school. Pitching has always been a strength for Benton, but that depth has been challenged by the loss of two of their top pitchers to injury.
“If you had to write the story of Benton baseball in 2024, it would probably be perseverance,” said head coach Dane Peavy. “Early on, we really didn’t anticipate we would be as talented as we have been in the past. We really didn’t know what this was going to look like.”
If you’d asked Peavy three months ago if he expected to be in this position in early May, “I would have told you we were a year away,” he said. “You don’t come in (Class) 5A with a young team and just think you are going to bully teams around.”
Benton was last in the state semifinals in 2019 as a Class 4A school. This is the Tigers’ first trip as a Class 5A school.
But one thing has remained the same – the postseason hair-bleaching.
“I’m not going to lie to you, it was kind of a team decision,” Brignac said. “We had a few guys highlight and not bleach. We had a team dinner and nobody had bleached, so we got together and got it done.”
With a little help from some team moms and a few bleaching kits, follicle team unity has been achieved. With much better results that previous years.
“I bleached my hair when we were freshmen,” Pierce said, “but it turned out orange.”
Don’t expect Brignac to be at the salon as soon as the season is over. “I’m going to ride it out,” he said.
The Tigers have ridden out the gauntlet of Baton Rouge-area schools in the first three rounds, winning best-of-three-series against Denham Springs, Dutchtown and St. Amant. In those seven games, only once has Benton scored more than four runs. The Tigers have played 17 games that were decided by two runs or less.
As proven in the final inning against St. Amant, don’t expect the moment to be too big for the Benton Tigers.
“It’s like Coach Peavy tells us; if we leave it all out there on the field, we are going to be satisfied,” Pierce said.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com