Capitalizing on opportunities was the difference in Tuesday night’s summer baseball game when South Beau hosted Rosepine. South Beau did what it had to do when it counted offensively and defensively and defeated Rosepine 10-8.

“Great job,” South Beau head coach Jeremy Walker said. “We came back and won after fighting, getting down a 3-0 deficit early on. The biggest key was we came up and hit the ball. A lot of two strike hits that produced RBIs.”

“I thought we didn’t execute our offense in situations well — too many strikeouts,” Rosepine coach Bradley Ducote said. “Two different times we had runners on second and third with one out and we didn’t produce one run. That was the key point in the game.”

Those two innings Ducote was referring to were the top of the fifth and sixth.

Down 3-0 going into the bottom of the first inning, South Beau (3-3) scored three runs to tie the game at 3-3.

Tyler Moses opened the bottom of the first inning for South Beau with a single to right. Cody Ivey was a courtesy runner for Moses and Ivey scored the first run of the inning on a Cade Addison RBI single to right field.

Addison came home and scored on a Ricky Ivey RBI double to left center.

Ricky Ivey tied the game at 3-3 when he came home on a Pryce Fontenot RBI single.

It could have been more for South Beau, but when Fontenot stole second base, Hunter Fontenot, who walked, tried to steal home and was called out.

Rosepine shortstop Brandon Russell threw the ball to catcher Grant Keel, who tagged Hunter Fontenot out at the plate.

After the first inning, both pitchers settled down.

Moses started for South Beau and went five-and-one-third innings and gave up seven runs and three walks and recorded seven strikeouts.

Dylan Strickland started for Rosepine (5-2 league play) and went three-and-two-thirds innings. He gave up seven runs and four walks and recorded three strikeouts.

Rosepine did come back and scored one run to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the second inning.

Austin Cox doubled and scored on a Russell fielder’s choice RBI.

Another run in the top of the third inning gave Rosepine a 5-3 lead.

Rustin Woodard reached on an infield single and scored on a Keel RBI single to deep left field.
Then South Beau scored seven runs unanswered to take a commanding 10-5 lead.

Ricky Ivey singled to left, stole second base and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning for South Beau to cut Rosepine’s lead to 5-4.

Three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning gave South Beau a 7-5 lead — one it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Kory Lambert singled to left field and came home for the first run of the inning on a Michael Fournet fielder’s choice RBI.

Justin Simmons came in to pitch for Rosepine.

The first hitter Simmons faced was Cody Ivey, who connected on a 2-RBI single to put South

Beau ahead 7-5. Fournet and Cody Cormier, who reached on a walk, scored on the play. Those runs were charged to Strickland.

Simmons pitched one-third of an inning for Rosepine and gave up two runs.

Those runs came in the bottom of the fifth inning. South Beau scored three runs in the inning to increase its lead to 10-5.

Addison singled to left to open the inning and Ricky Ivey followed with a double to right. Simmons came out after facing Ivey and was replaced by Russell.

Hunter Fontenot connected on a 2-RBI single to right field off of Russell to score Addison and Ricky Ivey.

Hunter Fontenot scored the third run of the inning when he stole third base. The throw attempting to get Hunter Fontenot out at third base went into the outfield and he came home and scored.

“I thought South Beauregard did an excellent job with two strike hitting and put the ball in play, which we did not do,” Ducote said.

Russell pitched two innings, gave up one run and two walks and record five strikeouts.

Rosepine was not about to quit. It scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to cut South Beau’s lead to 10-8.

Russell opened the inning with a deep fly out to left field and Lambert made a tough catch for South Beau.

Klint White hit a triple to deep right field for Rosepine and John Mark Holiday walked. Following the walk, Hunter Fontenot replaced Moses as the pitcher.

Hunter Fontenot got off to a shaky start. He hit two of his first three hitters — Woodard and Keel — to help Rosepine get back in the game.

In between Woodard and Keel, Aycock hit a 2-RBI single to right center to score White and Holiday.

Devin Brown had an RBI fielder’s choice for Rosepine to score Woodard for the third run of the inning.

However, Brown hit the ball to third base and Lambert tagged third to get Aycock out. Lambert threw the ball to first, but Brown beat the throw.

South Beau first baseman Austin Lebleu threw the ball to the catcher Addison, who tagged out Josh LaValley trying to score. LaValley was a courtesy runner for Keel.

After those two outs to end the inning, Hunter Fontenot settled down and pitched one-and-two-thirds innings, gave up one run, two hit by pitches and two walks.

“The last two games defensively we’ve done well,” Walker said. “We’ve made small mistakes, but we haven’t taken ourselves out of games like we have in the past. You don’t give up free bases. It’s a lot easier to win a ball game.”

South Beau had a chance to score in the bottom of the sixth when Lebleu walked. Rosepine’s catcher Keel threw the ball to Aycock at first base to tag Lebleu out.

“Too many walks during the game,” Ducote said. “Defensively I thought we played well.”

Rosepine had the early 3-0 lead thanks to a 2-RBI single by White in the top of the first inning.

Simmons and Russell singled and scored on the play.

White came around to score on a Holiday RBI single.

South Beau is back in action at 6 p.m. Thursday at Kinder.

OTHER STATISTICS
•For South Beau, Ricky Ivey went 3-for-3 with two doubles, one single, one RBI, three runs and one stolen base.
•For South Beau, Hunter Fontenot went 1-for-1 with two walks, one single, two RBIs, one run and one stolen base.
•For South Beau, Cody Ivey went 1-for-1 with one triple, two runs and two RBIs.
•For Rosepine, Aycock went 2-for-2 with two walks, two singles and two RBIs.
•For Rosepine, White went 2-for-4 with a double, triple, walk, two runs and two RBIs.
•For Rosepine, Holiday went 2-for-4 with two singles, one walk and one run.