PORT NECHES — Wednesday night’s first inning against the Goose Creek Memorial Patriots was the difference maker for the Port Neches-Groves Indians.
The Patriots put up a two-spot on the Indians and went on to win 2-1 in District 22-5A baseball Wednesday at The Reservation.
Goose Creek Memorial (2-0 in 22-5A) got a leadoff homer from Kyle Davis and four batters later Derick Cherry hit a RBI-double to give the Patriots a 2-0 lead.
PN-G (7-6, 1-1) starter Ryan Leckich settled down after the first inning and held Goose Creek to two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and three walks.
“Ryan is a really good pitcher,” PN-G coach Scott Carter said. “He does a good job throwing the baseball. He didn’t get some calls early on some pitches he lives by and it kind of got to him a little bit. After he got in the zone and he figured out what the umpire wanted, everything was good.”
Carter Henry threw the final two innings and gave up no runs on one hit with one strikeout and one walk.
The Indians bats were silent for most of the night against the Patriots ace, Mario Moralez.
Moralez pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up one run on three hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
The only run the Indians could come up with was a solo homer from senior first baseman Adam Morse in the bottom of the sixth.
“It came down to the first inning,” Carter said. “They hit a ball in the air, it got in the jet stream and they got a home run. They then went up 2-0 on the double with two outs and my pitching did a good job after that. We just didn’t hit the baseball. You aren’t going to win many games with three hits in a game.”
The first PN-G hit came in the top of the second when Austin Bost led off with a single. Bost was stranded at first after a fly out, strikeout and grounder to third.
Leckich came up with the Indians third hit of the night in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out. He single to short and Carter then decided to roll the dice with the next batter.
Nathan Vidrine bunted for the second out of the inning and moved Leckich into scoring position. Hayden Guerra then came in to run for Leckich.
The move did not pay off as Goose Creek relief pitcher Hunter Hamm got Trey Toney to fly out to end the game.
“We had not had many hits and Trey Toney has been hitting well for us,” Carter said. “It was a situation for us where we had a runner on first with one out and we had not hit the ball well. We decided to move him over, get a base hit and tie the ball game.”