BATON ROUGE — Three consecutive three-run innings propelled the Gold team to a 9-4 win against the Purple team in Game 1 of the Purple-Gold World Series Tuesday night at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
Game 2 of the Purple-Gold World Series will take place Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT at The Box.
“Being under the lights with the enthusiastic crowd here tonight was fantastic,” head coach Paul Mainieri said. “We saw some good pitching at times and some good hitting at times. I think it was a successful night.”
In the top of first, second baseman Brandt Broussard tripled to right-centerfield and scored on a wild pitch to give the Purple the 1-0 lead.
The Purple team snagged the 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning when shortstop Josh Smith slapped a single to right field and scored on a booming triple to right field by centerfielder Antoine Duplantis.
The Gold team took the 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning. With one out and a runner on first base, third baseman Jake Slaughter and centerfielder Zach Watson hit back-to-back singles to drive in a run apiece. Catcher Hunter Feduccia drove in the final run of the inning with an infield single too second base to score Watson.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Gold team jumped out to the 6-2 lead. With one out after reaching on an error, first baseman Mason Templet scored on second baseman Hal Hughes‘ ringing double to left field. Hughes scored later in the inning on an error by the catcher. With two outs and the bases loaded, Feduccia drove in another run with a single to shallow right-center field.
With the bases loaded, the Gold team tacked on another three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two out single to right field by left fielder Daniel Cabrera. Templet and Hughes scored after reaching via single earlier in the inning. Zach Watson drove in the Gold team’s final run of the inning with a single to right-center.
The Purple team cut down the Gold lead to 9-4 in the top of the sixth inning. With the bases loaded, Duplantis hit a long sacrifice fly ball to centerfield to drive in a run. In the next at-bat left fielder Beau Jordan slapped a single into centerfield, which scored Smith.
Right-hander Todd Peterson started the contest for the Gold team. The sophomore fired three innings and limited the Purple team to two runs on four hits, striking out three. For the Gold team, starter AJ Labas threw three innings, allowed three runs on five hits, struck out two and walked one. Freshman southpaw John Kodros had a solid outing, firing one inning, allowing only one hit, struck out two and walked one.
“When you play these intrasquad games,” Mainieri added. “It’s typical that you are going to see some good stuff on the field. You’re going to see some stuff that is not very crisp. It’s hard enough to have nine good players play every day, much less have two sets of nine. Of course, your pitching gets a little thin as well, but there was some good stuff all over the field. I choose to dwell on those positive things.”