No. 4 Cats push past No. 7 Cards, 7-2

[Bobcatfan4life]

[b]No. 4 Cats push past No. 7 Cards, 7-2
Gabriel Pruett
Orange Leader

BRIDGE CITY —[/b] Believe the 2010 Orangefield Bobcats hype.

These Bobcats are for real and proved it Friday night with an impressive 7-2 win over the Bridge City Cardinals.

The win sent the No. 4 Bobcats to the top of the District 21-3A standings with a 5-0 mark while the No. 7 Cardinals are in second with a 4-1 mark.

This year’s Bobcats can flat out hit as Orangefield chased Bridge City starter Matt Hicks out of the game after 6 1/3 innings of work. Hicks gave up 10 hits and seven runs while striking out eight and walking three. Hicks threw 123 pitches.

This year’s Bobcats can pitch too proven by Orangefield’s Jace Statum who hurled the complete game. Statum, who threw 106 pitches, struck out eight and walked four while giving up five hits.

“This feels awesome,” Statum said. “Words really can’t explain it. It is all teamwork this year. We are all one family. Matt is a great pitcher. We have been swinging like this all year and took the same approaches tonight.”

Statum tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third with a solo shot to center.

The next inning is when the Bobcats exploded off Hicks.

Orangefield connected for five straight hits, two were back-to-back homers by Chase Angelle and Quinton Evans.

Angelle roped a two-run home run after Jacob Felts singled to make it 3-1 Bobcats before Evans’ eighth home run of the season made it 4-1.

“It is all a team effort,” Felts said. “I will go 1-for-3 all season if we keep winning these games. This game is great for our confidence but we are not even close to where we want to be in our goals. WO-S is next on the schedule and we can’t overlook those guys.”

Joe Robertson got the Cardinals off to a quick start in the bottom of the first with a leadoff double off Statum.

Robertson moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Hicks and game in to score when Luke Rhodes had a RBI groundout to short to give Bridge City its only lead of the night.

Statum kept the Cardinals off the board the rest of the way except for the bottom of the fourth when Zach Smith scored on a RBI single by Robertson.

Smith had a leadoff double to get on base and moved to third on a Forrest Zoch single to make it 4-2 Bobcats.

Orangefield tacked on a run in the top of the fifth as Jonathan Deramus scored on wild pitch.

Evans and Corey Huckabay each scored in the top of the seventh as Derrick Evans laced a two-run single into left to make the final score.

“It is all in the mindset we have this year,” Orangefield coach Jeff Bennett said. “We are more mentally focused this year and it all starts with each of the seniors on this team. We have great leadership. Our guys believed they could win and they went out and did it.”

The second round of 21-3A play starts Monday as Orangefield will entertain West Orange-Stark and Bridge City hits the road to face Hamshire-Fannett.