St. Amant's baseball team evened its Division I nonselect quarterfinals series against No. 13 Benton on Saturday but fell 1-0 in the deciding Game 3.
Like two games before it, the second half of Saturday’s doubleheader was a duel between pitchers.
Benton gave the start to the hulking right-hander Tanner Webb, who recorded five strikeouts and allowed only three hits across the seven innings. St. Amant (27-12) started Chase Kelley, a righty who conceded only three hits of his own in a complete outing.
But in the third inning, Kelley balked across Benton’s first — and only — run of the game. The runner who scored was one of only three batters he walked on the day.
Over the three-game series, the District 1-5A Tigers (31-10) plated six runs. Four were unearned.
“They’ll feel it for a little while,” St. Amant coach Brandon Bravata said. “The pitching and defense for those guys is pretty special. They’ve got a really good pitching staff and a really good defense, and when you have that, you have a chance to be successful every day.”
The No. 5 Gators had a chance to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the seventh. But their offense couldn’t put a runner on base: Wyatt Ford chopped out to first base, Jace Moody dribbled out to short, and Ryder Mollea grounded out to third.
St. Amant didn’t move a runner into scoring position until the fifth inning, when Webb hit a batter and nine-hole hitter Easton Humphrey pulled a line drive into shallow left field. But the District 5-5A Gators couldn’t take advantage: Webb got Trent LaPorte to swing, miss and strikeout on the low-hanging breaking ball he tossed to end the inning.
Webb was similarly commanding in Friday’s Game 1, when he entered in the seventh as a reliever with one out and the bases loaded and earned a save by striking out St. Amant’s final two batters.
“I was very proud of the seniors,” Bravata said. “Where we brought this program in the last four years they’ve been here has been pretty special. They’re grinders. Not one physical stud as far as size or stars on the recruiting trail or anything like that, but they’re five stars at heart, so that’s what I’m proud of.”
In Game 2, St. Amant broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning after scoring three runs on four hits. Ford, a left-hander, threw a complete game to earn the win on the mound. Across the seven innings he worked, he tallied seven strikeouts, allowed five hits and conceded only one earned run.
Next, Benton will travel to Sulphur for a semifinal series against No. 1 Barbe, which beat Mandeville.
The series marked the first time St. Amant hosted a quarterfinal since 2014.