By ROBERT L. LEE

HAHNVILLE – Members of the Tigers’ and Comets’ teams may have expected Wednesday evening’s victory to come down to within two runs, but probably neither figured only two runs total would be scored during the six and one half innings.

A timely series of hits in the first inning and a solo home run by Joey Bourgeois seemingly out of the blue in the fifth inning, combined for the only runs scored and an Otto Candies Tigers 2-0 home win.

The victory sends the Tigers to 6-1 in district, while the Comets slip to 4-3 in district play.

Both teams’ defenses ruled the field, from the pitcher’s mound to the outfield, smothering any offensive threat, if allowing one at all. The first inning began with a bang for the Tigers, who took a 1-0 lead after holding back the Comets’ top-of-the-inning strike.

Jordan Brown pitched a complete game for the Tigers and began by striking out the first Comet batter.

A high bunt set the Cretin Homes team with two outs, but Chris Cancienne provided the Comets with spark, delivering a ground ball base hit, then eventually stealing second base.

Reid Owens was handed a walk to put two runners on base, but a hit to second base cut off the Comets chance of a first inning lead.

Fighting pitches from the Comets’ Jeremy Catoire, the Tigers’ Steven Burns made a base hit, followed by Ryan Chiasson, who doubled off the center field wall placing runners on second and third bases.

A Kyle Mineo hit chalked up the first out against the Tigers, but allowed Burns enough time to run across home plate for the first run on the scoreboard.

“It was a good game with good pitchers. We weren’t going to hit their pitcher and they weren’t going to hit ours,” stated Tigers’ coach Mark Sims.

“But after the first inning, I thought we’d score more.”

He said he certainly didn’t expect the one Tiger run scored in the first inning to hold up and hold off the Comets. Sims credited Brown for doing a good job spotting his fastball, and for finishing the game without a single walk. Brown and his fastball totalled nine strike outs, with three coming in the seventh inning, and the last strike out coming in three pitches.

“We did a good job, and with no walks and no errors we should win,” Sims continued.

“It’s frustrating,” admitted Comets’ coach Paul Waguespack. “We had a chance. We played well on the field, but you just can’t win not pulling the trigger.”

Waguespack said his batters took too many strike outs, and when they did connect, such as when they hit back-to-back doubles, they were picked off on the bases.

After hitting a double down the right field line, one runner was caught sleeping about six feet from second base and was tagged out. Immediately following, another runner tried a late slide into third, only to reach a Tiger glove first.

“You just can’t do that,” he continued. “But we keep playing and it’ll get better.”

On a positive note, Waguespack described high points of his team’s performance, such as Catoire giving up only three hits amidst eight strike outs.

He added that although the Comets gave up two hits in the first inning, the Tigers had three base runners in the first inning and only came out of it with one run on the board.

Following five instances of three batters up and three back down leading into the fifth inning, Bourgeois kicked off the bottom of the inning with his solo home run, which travelled just shy of the left field foul line until dropping over the fence.

Both teams sped through the sixth inning, going three up and three down yet again. Facing two outs, the Comets placed runners on first and second bases, but their winning run was struck out at the plate.

“I didn’t think they’d hit a homer,” said Sims.

“So we deepened up to get the runner out at first base.”