BY RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Townsend Homes pitcher David Bleakley was told that he’d need his best stuff if his St. Charles Catholic-based team was to come away with a victory over Chalmette-based Gulf Coast Bank Monday.

That statement was right. So was Bleakley’s performance.

The right-hander tossed a three-hit complete game shutout to lead Townsend Homes to a 1-0 victory at Comet Field in an American Legion Second District game.

“Coach Wayne (Stein) told me that if we were going to win, we’d have to hold them to no more than two runs,” said Bleakley. “I threw as well as I could… It was really all about defense today. I can’t say enough about how they played behind me.”

Townsend Homes (6-4) turned three double plays in the game, two on line drives.  

The eventual game-deciding run came in the first inning when Kameron Keller scored from third off of an error on a ball hit by Dillan Gilles.

The bases were loaded after singles by Keller and Austin Weber and a walk by Luke Poche.

Gulf Coast’s Alex Smith took the loss despite a fine effort. He allowed four hits and struck out 10 batters over six complete innings.

Gulf Coast had chances to take the lead, its first coming in the second inning after singles by Wesley Ruffino and      Ruston Pritchard. But Freddy Ziegler lined out to Weber at shortstop, who flipped the ball to third to double off the runner and end the inning.

“It was a great play by Austin,” said Bleakley. “He gets a guy out at third who probably scores if he doesn’t make that play.”

In the third, Sean Esponge got on via error, but Townsend got a double play on a grouder by Ricky Gonzales. Then in the fourth, Smith lined out to third where a leaping Mason Bordelon hauled in the catch, then threw to first to record a third double play.

From there, Gulf Coast never had more than one baserunner aboard in an inning.

“Dave threw extremely well today,” said Townsend coach Paul Waguespack. “We did a great job overall, I thought. He threw strikes, we made some timely double plays … it was a great ballgame for us.”

The game took just an hour and 35 minutes to play.

“That’s the best feeling in the world, to go out and have some real quick innings… You try and keep the pitch count down, and today it was 90 in seven innings. That’s what you try for.”

The win was Townsend’s third in a row, coming after victories over Peake BMW and Post 307, the latter a 10-3 win Friday. Connor Smith earned the win on the mound in that game.