Rebel Baseball Team Finishes Preseason 3-0

Submitted by Roger W. Martin

The Central Private Rebels began the 2011 season looking to defend their District 5 AA title and hoping to win the schools 12th state championship. The preseason got kicked off with a 3 game set in the Bowling Green tournament on February 15, 2011.

Central Private started their preseason play versus Silliman with a 10 to 5 victory. In the second preseason game Central Private played Parklane to a 4 to 3 decision to get their second victory in the preseason tournament. In the third and final preseason tune up game Central Private squared off against the host team Bowling Green. Central Private jumped out to an early 13 to 1 lead, but with some pitching struggles and a few costly errors Bowling Green closed the gap late in the game. Bowling Green came up short as Central Private held on for a 13 to 12 victory as they completed a tournament sweep to finish the preseason a perfect 3 and 0.

Central Private opened their regular season schedule with a home game versus Bowling Green on February 22nd. The second matchup between these two teams turned into a pitching and defensive struggle with Bowling Green holding on to win a 2 to 1 decision.

In the Rebels second regular season game, the bats came alive as Ryan Young hit a solo home run to get the scoring kicked off in the bottom of the first inning. The hits continued to come as the Rebels went on to score 17 runs with 9 hits in the game as they posted a 17 to 0 shut out versus the CHEF Patriots. Junior, left hand pitcher, Tyler Brown was the winning pitcher as the Rebels even up their record at 1 and 1 to start the season. In the third game of the season the Rebels faced a tough team from Houma, LA in Covenant Christian. The Rebels got on the board first when junior Hunter Wallace hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning. The Rebels carried a 3 to 0 lead into the 5th inning until Covenant Christian posted 3 runs in the top of the inning knotting the game up at 3 to 3. The game seemed to be a stale mate as it continued into extra innings when finally in the bottom of the 8th inning junior Hunter Fauntleroy hit a walk-off home run to give the Rebels their second win of the season. Sophomore, right hand pitcher, Blake Chelette was credited with the win and the Rebels scored 4 runs on 10 hits.

In the fourth, and most recent, game of the young season, the Rebels played host to the Oak Forest Yellow Jackets of Amite, LA. Oak Forest is a good team coming off a great playoff run last season. Oak Forest jumped out to an early 2 to 0 lead heading into the bottom of the 3rd inning when the Rebels bats started heating up with junior Seth Stevens hitting a 3 run bomb giving the Rebels an early lead that they would never surrender back to Oak Forest. The Rebels went on to score 14 runs on 13 hits but did have 2 timely errors that allowed the Yellow Jackets to score a few runs to tighten the game. With the game tightened, Seth Stevens continued to come through with clutch hit after clutch hit as he finished the night 5 for 5 with 2 singles, 1 double, 1 triple, and a home run as he completed the game hitting for the cycle. Seth also had 7 RBI’s followed by Hunter Fauntleroy who had 3 hits and 2 RBI’s while the Rebels finish the game with a 14 to 7 victory over the Yellow Jackets. Tyler Brown was the starting pitcher for the Rebels and was credited with the win as he improves his pitching record to 2 and 0.

Central Privates Head Baseball Coach Jason Kinchen had this to say about the Rebels latest win: “It was nice to see the guys swing the bats like I know they are capable of. Hopefully this will show the team's offensive potential that I know they have inside them. Defensively I believe we made 2 errors which I'm not happy with. It was nice to see a good outing from Tyler Brown giving us 4 solid innings with control and command. I would have liked to see him finish the 5th inning.”