Barbe and Sulphur don’t need much of a reason for a good scrap, but will have the additional prize of the District 3-5A lead on the line when the Bucs head west to take on the Tors tonight.

First pitch is 6 p.m. at McMurry Park.

The Bucs (22-2, 3-0) and Tors (18-6, 3-0) are the last unbeatens in district play. Six of the seven teams in the district have double-digit wins, and five have won at least 14 games.

Barbe and Sulphur enter on hot streaks, with the Bucs having won 14 straight including an 11-inning, 4-3 thriller at Sam Houston last week. The Bucs followed that game with a 7-1 win over Carencro. Sloan Dieter had two home runs and knocked in three runs in the Carencro win.

Sulphur has nine of its last 10, allowing only 23 runs in that span. Barbe has averaged 7.4 runs per game during its winning streak.

Tors head coach Jason Trahan said his team has a simple formula.

“Pitching and solid defense is what we do well, and we have been scoring just enough to win, stringing innings together with some clutch hitting,” he said.

“Starters Cole Lavergne, Charlie Dronet and Kale Breaux have been getting it done for us. Lavergne throws a lot of strikes, we dropped him down side-arm so now he has sink on his ball. He throws strikes and does not give up big innings. Kale does the same thing and has a great curve ball to go with it.”

Sulphur swept games against Acadiana and Comeaux last week, beating the Rams 5-4 in Sulphur and shutting out the Spartans 6-0 in Lafayette.

In the win over Comeaux, Breaux threw a complete game shutout.

Trahan said the Tors will need to continue excelling at small ball against tough 3-5A foes.

“We need to keep pitching and playing defense, keep getting five and six innings out of our starters,” he said.

“We have to come up with some clutch hitting, we have been giving ourselves some opportunities.”

(mgnonline.com)