St. Amant baseball nearly overcame a slew of fielding miscues Friday night in its 4-2 Division I nonselect quarterfinal loss to No. 13 Benton in St. Amant.
But the last three batters the fifth-seeded Gators sent to the plate struck out, stranding the game-tying run on second base and the game-winning run on first.
In the third inning, St. Amant (26-11) committed three errors — an errant pickoff attempt, a bobbled grounder and a wide throw to first base — opening the door for Benton to take an early 3-0 lead, all on unearned runs.
The District 5-5A Gators had chances to trim the deficit, but their hitters recorded only one hit across the last three innings of the game. Benton’s starter, left-handed pitcher Cade Bryant, recorded four strikeouts and surrendered four hits in 6 innings.
“(The errors) bit us,” Gators coach Brandon Bravata said. “You can’t make mistakes in the playoffs, and we did, so it might’ve been a little bit different game if we didn’t. But you've go to give them credit. They put the ball on the ground with two strikes and made us make plays, and we didn’t do it.”
At the plate, St. Amant recorded hits in three of the first four innings. But the Gators didn’t score their first run until the fourth when pitcher Layne Swanson threaded a double down the first-base line, advanced to third and scored on a wild pitch.
Swanson, a senior left-hander, allowed only one earned run on three hits over six innings.
In the fifth, St. Amant cut into Benton’s lead again after center fielder Easton Humphrey reached on a catcher’s interference call, shortstop Hudson Brignac walked, third baseman Chase Kelley laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Swanson hit a grounder, giving the District 1-5A Tigers (30-9) a fielder’s choice that allowed a second run to score.
Only one Gator reached base in the sixth inning. But in the seventh, St. Amant’s first two leadoff hitters walked and its third, Kelly, dropped a bunt perfectly down the third-base line to reach first and load the bases.
Swanson then struck out looking, and Benton trotted out right-handed reliever Tanner Webb, who earned the save by striking out the next two St. Amant hitters. The first went down looking, and the second struck out swinging.
“I thought they made some really good pitches,” Bravata said. “The guy that came in at the end, with the atmosphere the way it was, to come in and throw strikes the way he did, he just beat us.”
Next, St. Amant and Benton will meet at 1 p.m. Saturday for Game 2 of the series. A third game, if necessary, would follow.
The Gators need to win both games of a doubleheader to extend their season with a trip to Sulphur for the semifinals of the LHSAA state tournament.