JOURNAL STAFF
NEW ORLEANS – For the first time in three games at the state American Legion Baseball Tournament, the defending champion Bossier Phillies weren’t in control Monday night against the Southland Hogs, one of only two teams to defeat them this summer.
But the Phillies didn’t panic. Two big innings, back-to-back in the fifth and sixth, provided 10 runs in an 11-4 winner’s bracket final win at storied Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.
The outcome guarantees Bossier (17-2) a spot in Wednesday’s championship game as the only unbeaten club left in the field. The Phillies will play Retif Oil, the New Orleans-Jesuit based “home” team, tonight at 7 with the Oilers trying to stay alive and scramble the bracket.
In a 4 p.m. semifinal, the Hogs will again meet Crowley’s Millers in an elimination game with the winner advancing to Wednesday.
Phillies coach Dane Peavy, who steered last year’s team to the World Series, liked how this year’s club responded to a 3-1 deficit after three innings.
“After you’ve obliterated your first two opponents (by a combined 23-4), you get softened a bit. We hadn’t been punched in the mouth. Tonight that happened, and we grinded out at-bats late and got key hits, key at-bats. I was proud of the guys for digging in, fighting back and we put stuff together and got away with it.
“It’s a big win for us, puts us in the championship game Wednesday, but all is not done. We have to take care of business the next couple of days,” said Peavy.
Leadoff man Cole Snell went 4-for-4, scoring three times, and Case Jorden had two hits including a double. The Phillies drew nine walks as Southland pitchers struggled after the fourth inning.
Griffin Sibley started Bossier’s five-run fifth inning with an eight-pitch at-bat ending in a free pass. Jorden singled and Kam Wrightner delivered a sacrifice bunt before Snell singled in the Phillies’ second run. Jorden tied it by scoring on a wild pitch, then after Hudson Brignac walked, Easton Sanders put the Phillies on top with a sacrifice fly. Brock Laird’s RBI single made it 5-3.
The Phillies took advantage of Hogs’ mistakes in their six-run sixth, scoring on three bases-loaded walks and three wild pitches. The losers used seven pitchers, five in the last three innings. Southland compounded its problems with four errors.
Thomas Allen got all but the last out for the Phillies, overcoming a rocky start with three hitless innings in the fourth, fifth and sixth as Bossier took command. He struck out five.