Louisiana closes out Southern Shootout with title
Published 3:00 am Friday, June 30, 2017
- Messenger Photo/Mike Hensley Over 100 of the south’s best high school baseball players visited Riddle-Pace Field this week for the Southern Shootout. On Thursday the camp came to a close when Louisiana defeated Alabama for the championship.
The best high school underclassman from all over the southeast came to Riddle-Pace Field this week for the 18th annual Southern Shootout.
Over 100 Players from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee gathered to work and play in front of over 40 college and professional scouts throughout the week.
The camp opened with a home run derby on Monday night and beginning on Tuesday, participants received field work by the college scouts and coaches and also took on field batting practice.
Each team played a round-robin style tournament throughout the week, leading up to Thursday afternoon’s final game.
On Thursday, the Louisiana team rolled past Alabama 13-6 for the camp championship.
Louisiana scored five runs in the bottom of the first, thanks to three walks. Champ Artigues scored the first run of the inning when Thomas Stevens reached on a bases-loaded walk. Chance Stone reached on a fielder’s choice to score Scott Jones then came around to score on another fielder’s choice. Stevens came around to score on a wild pitch and Brennan Lambert closed out the scoring when he touched home on a Brandon Riley groundout.
Alabama answered with four runs in the top of the second. Hogan Isbell from Colbert County High School hit a two-run double to left field to get Alabama on the board. Alabama then got back-to-back RBI singles by Jalon Long and Brody Moore to bring the score to 5-4.
Louisiana matched with a four-run bottom of the second, stretching the lead to 9-4. Stevens picked up the big hit in the inning when he hit a two-run triple to right field scoring Scott Jones and Jarrett McDonald.
Louisiana added two more in the third with a RBI double by Brant Husser and a RBI single by Artigues to bring the score to 11-4.
Louisiana scored one more in the fifth on a single by Carson Clowers, making the score 12-4. Louisiana scored their final run of the game in the sixth.
Alabama scored their first run since in the second inning when T.J. Reeves scored on a Carson Eddy groundout. Landon Langston drove in the game’s final run with a single to right field to bring the score to 13-6.
Alabama finished with 10 hits, led by Brody Moore and Christopher Sargent who each had two. Artigues led the way for Louisiana with three hits.