The Parkway Panthers defeated the Airline Vikings 13-4 in a District 1-5A opener Tuesday at Airline.
In the other 1-5A openers, Haughton fell to Byrd 7-4 at Byrd’s Field at LSUS, and Evangel Christian edged Southwood 4-3.
In a non-district game, Benton cruised past St. Louis Catholic 14-3 at Louisiana College. In a District 1-4A game, Bossier fell to North DeSoto 12-3 at Bossier’s field at Rusheon.
At Airline, eight Panthers combined for 12 hits. Christian Vicknair went 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI.
Christion Rayner went 2-for-2 with a double and also drew two walks. Collier Cloinger and Caleb Reese had two hits each. Eric Brown had a two-RBI triple. Hayden Knotts had a two-RBI double.
Peyton Lewis had a double. Amani Larry had two RBI.
Cloinger got the win, coming one out short of a complete game. He allowed four hits, struck out nine and walked four.
Airline’s Hayden Travinski had two hits, including a home run. Hayden Lope and Dalton Burrell had doubles.
Parkway broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the top of the fourth. Airline scored in the bottom of the inning to get within two.
The Panthers added three more in the sixth and then put six on the board in the seventh. Parkway had three extra-base hits in the seventh and took advantage of two walks.
The Panthers (12-4, 1-0) and the Vikings (7-8, 0-1) complete the two-game series at 6 p.m. Thursday at Parkway.
At LSUS, Byrd capitalized on six Haughton errors and nine walks.
Haughton’s Peyton Stovall had a double and three RBI. Jonathan Sewell went 2-for-3.
After two scoreless innings, both teams scored three runs in the third. The Yellow Jackets scored one in the fourth and the Bucs answered with one in the top of the fifth.
Byrd then scored three in the bottom of the inning thanks to five walks and a single.
Charlie Barham, Julien Deleon and Ashton Nelson all had two hits for Byrd. Deleon hit a two-run homer in the third.
The Bucs (12-3, 0-1), which had a six-game winning streak snapped, and Jackets (7-10, 1-0) complete the two-game series at 6 Thursday at Haughton.
At Louisiana College, Benton continued to swing a hot bat. The Tigers, who had 39 hits in four games in last week’s Parkway tournament, had 15 hits in the five-inning game against St. Louis.
Clint Lasiter, Cole Horton and Cameron Ross all had three hits and two RBI. Lasiter and Horton both doubled.
Daniel Halbert and JT Brice had two hits each. One of Brice’s was a double.
Cade Scott and Sam Simmons had two RBI each. Brennan Blaylock had a double.
Simmons got the win. He allowed one hit in three innings and struck out four.
Benton (15-4) will go for its ninth straight win Friday at 6 against North Webster at home.
At Rusheon, Bossier’s Jon-Mikal Robertson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. The Bearkats dropped to 4-8 overall and 0-5 in district. North DeSoto improved to 5-9 and 2-0.
