Yellow Jackets bounce back with two wins in NVHS tourney
Published 2:00 am Sunday, February 27, 2022
- Christian Thomas jumps up to avoid the ball.
ABBEVILLE — After opening the season with three crushing losses to Iowa, Central and defending Class 4A champion North Vermilion, all really good teams that will be in the hunt for state titles this year, New Iberia Senior High bounced back with a pair of wins over the weekend in the North Vermilion Tournament.
The Yellow Jackets beat Lafayette Christian Friday and Vermilion Catholic Saturday to move to 2-3 on the season as they head into a big game against St. Thomas More Tuesday.
Kennedy Drexler had two doubles, scored two runs and had an RBI and Luke Landry pitched four innings and allowed three runs, one earned, for NISH in a 9-4 win over Vermilion Catholic Saturday to finish the NV Tournament with a 2-1 record.
“We’re playing better and better,” NISH coach Eli Lewellyn said. “I’m just proud of the guys stepping up. Luke pitched well after pitching a couple of innings last night (Friday) and set the tone for us while Lucas Aucoin came in a finished the game.
“We had a couple of seniors step up at the plate. Christian Thomas had a hit, Evan Hebert had a big hit with two outs that scored two. That’s what it’s going to take for us to win some baseball games this year, guys stepping up and making plays for us.”
Thomas scored two runs and had an RBI while Hebert had two hits and Payton Castille had two hits and two RBIs for NISH, which scored a run in the top of the second to take the lead, lost it to VC in the bottom of the second, then scored two runs in both the third and fourth innings to take the lead for good before plating four runs in the top of the seventh to ice the win.
Thomas Bellaire had two runs, two RBIs and scored a run for the Eagles. Cole Foster took the loss, giving up three runs on two hits in 2 2/3 innings.
“We achieved what we think this team is capable of this weekend,” Lewellyn said. “I don’t think that we should be satisfied with how we played because I think we could have played a lot better.
“A couple of errors here and there made the game feel close than what it was. So it we clean it up and get a little better as a baseball team, we we can be a lot more competitive.”
