The Benton Tigers and Haughton Buccaneers notched district baseball victories Thursday night.
The Tigers completed the District 1-4A sweep of the Minden Crimson Tide 10-1 at Benton. Benton improved to 24-6 overall and 11-0 in district. Minden dropped to 14-15 and 7-3.
Benton, which is searching for its fifth straight district title, has three district games left. Northwood (17-11, 7-2) and North DeSoto (21-9, 8-2) are tied for second.
The Tigers can clinch at least a share of the championship with a win over Bossier on Tuesday at Rusheon.
Haughton opened a District 1-5A two-game set against Southwood with a 6-5 victory at Haughton.
The Bossier Bearkats swept a District 1-4A doubleheader against Fair Park, winning the first game 16-6 and the second 15-2.
Elsewhere, the Airline Vikings suffered their first District 1-5A loss, 6-5, to Evangel Christian at Evangel. Airline rallied from a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the seventh only to see Evangel come back to score two in the bottom of the inning.
Airline (19-11, 8-1), which had an eight-game winning streak snapped, still leads the district by two games in the loss column. Haughton (14-17, 6-3) and Byrd (14-15, 8-3), which edged Captain Shreve 9-8 in eight innings, are tied for second in the loss column.
Parkway (17-11, 5-5) was idle Thursday.
At Benton, Will Hine continued his successful season with another sterling performance on the mound. He pitched a four-hitter with two strikeouts and only two walks. Hine threw 99 pitches and 61 of those were strikes.
Cody Norris, Garrett Hable and Coleman Nerren all had two hits. Nerren had a triple.
Hal Gatti reached base three times and had four RBI. He doubled, walked and was hit by a pitch. Sam Simmons had two RBI. Cole Horton singled and walked twice.
At Evangel, Josh James led off Airline’s seventh with a single and Peyton Jordan followed with a double. Bryson Connell singled in James to cut Evangel’s lead to 4-3.
With Hunter Hollis at the plate and one out, Jordan scored on a wild pitch to tie it. Ryan Lawhorne, who replaced Connell, then scored the go-ahead run.
Evangel loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning with a single, double and walk. The Eagles tied the game on an error. Blake Shapen’s single won it.
Cameron Parikh had two of Airline’s six hits, including a double. Evangel’s Taylor Knowles went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
Airline starter Chase Hodges went six innings. He allowed four hits and three earned runs while striking out six. Reliever Jake Mayfield took the loss.
Evangel starter Knowles allowed four hits and and three earned runs. Jerry Couch, who pitched the seventh, got the win.
Evangel improved to 11-17 and 3-6. The Vikings and Eagles face off again Saturday at 1 p.m. at Airline.
At Haughton, the Bucs scored two runs in the fifth to tie it at 5 and then won it in the seventh.
Jonathan Plant walked to lead off the seventh and advanced to third on an error on Jathon Patton’s ground ball. Cameron Townsend walked to load the bases. Cade Thompson followed with a walk-off walk.
Patton, Sam Herren and Nick Heckman had two hits apiece. Thompson went 1-for-2. He walked twice and had two RBI.
Plant, Townsend, Heckman and CJ McWilliams all had one RBI. Herren and McWilliams both doubled.
Austin Clemmens didn’t allow a hit and struck out five in the final two innings for the win. Jayson Nitz allowed one hit and no earned runs in three innings of work.
It was Haughton’s 14th one-run game of the season. The Bucs have now won five of those.
Haughton and Southwood (5-23, 0-9) play Game 2 of the two-game set Saturday at 1 p.m. at Southwood.
At Rusheon, Xavier Murphy went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI in Bossier’s Game 1 win against Fair Park. Kaleb Harlow also had two doubles. Kevin McCuthen and Preston Allen both had two RBI.
Harlow and McCuthen combined to pitch a no-hitter.
Rangel Miller, Harlow, McCuthen, Kaleb Ortega and Allen all had hits in Game 2. Ortega had two RBI and Chase Bounds scored three runs. Miller threw a no-hitter.
Bossier improved to 12-16 overall and 4-6 in district.
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
