Danny Hill and Cadge Wallace both went 3-for-3 as Morehouse National handed West Monroe East its first loss of the District 5 Rookie League Tournament on Thursday night at Carter Park.

It wasn’t an entirely bad night for the East, however.

Morehouse’s 12-5 victory left three teams, including West Monroe North, with one loss apiece. Drawing slips of paper out of a hat, the East drew the coveted bye and, more importantly, an automatic bid to the State Tournament in DeRidder.

Morehouse and West Monroe North face off today at 6 p.m., with the winner taking on West Monroe East at 7:30 for the championship. The winner of today’s first game is assured of a State Tournament berth, while the loser will play the third place team from another district for a wildcard spot.

Ironically, West Monroe East defeated Morehouse by the same 12-5 score in Monday’s first round.

Morehouse found its hitting groove right out of the chute in Thursday’s late game.

With one out, Austin Carroll singled up the middle, continued to second on a throwing error and crossed home on Jarrett McDonald’s base hit to center. Morehouse was ahead to stay.

Cadge Wallace then singled to left. Both runners moved up on an errant throw, leaving McDonald at third and Wallace at second. Jamarco Edmonds followed with a two-run triple to right and crossed home on Danny Hill’s base hit.

After Jacob Farrar singled with two down, East first baseman Thomas Wilhite made a sliding catch in foul territory in front of the Morehouse dugout to retire the side. But the Nationals had struck for four runs.

Wilhite, the East’s cleanup batter, scorched a two-out inside-the-park home run down the left field line to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first. Zach Murphy, who singled, was aboard for Wilhite’s blast.

From a Morehouse perspective, the inning could have been worse as shortstop Luke Denman and pitcher Austin Carroll snared line drives for the first and third outs. In between, catcher Gage Riles hustled to his right to make a splendid catch on a pop fly for out number two.

Continuing to chip away at the lead, East closed within 4-3 as Blake Everett and Nate Newsom opened the second with back-to-back singles. Everett dashed all the way home on a throwing error, while Newsom held at second.

Reasserting control of the game, the Nationals strung together four straight two-out hits during a five-run third-inning uprising.

Layton Rainbolt jump-started the Nationals with a leadoff single to center. Carroll singled with one away, before McDonald’s fielder’s choice left runners at the corners with two gone.

Wallace and Edmonds followed with RBI singles, Hill singled home two runs with a base knock to right and Riles muscled a two-run triple to pad the Nationals’ lead to 9-3.

WME got one of the runs back in the home half of the third when Jaden Monk singled, moved to second on Zach Hogan’s groundout and scored on a throwing error.

Morehouse kept the pressure on as the lower portion of the batting order came through with three consecutive hits during a two-run fourth. With one down, Brayden Spigner and Patrayvious Johnson doubled before A.J. Fenceroy’s two-run single stretched the spread to 11-4.

Hill pulled a rocket to right field for an RBI double in the top of the fifth and Newsom doubled and scored on Brady Brown’s fielder’s choice in both bottom of the frame to conclude the scoring. Fenceroy, the Morehouse left-center fielder, made a strong throw to second base to get the force at second base for the second out of the inning.

Hill fueled the Nationals’ 19-hit attack with a double, two singles and three RBIs and Wallace supplied three singles and scored three times. Edmonds and Riles slammed a triple and a single, Carroll punched two singles, Johnson doubled and Denman, McDonald, Farrar, Spigner, Fenceroy and Rainbolt singled.

Newsom went 2-for-2 with a double to pace the East, Wilhite connected for the circuit and Abram Tarantino, Murphy, Jakob Hearne, Everett, Josh Webber and Monk singled for the East.

Hearne, the East’s Gold Glove shortstop, played his usual spectacular defensive game.

West Monroe North 8,
West Monroe West 2

West Monroe North jumped out to a 7-0 third-inning lead and coasted to the victory in the early game.

Successive one-out singles by Luke Farrar, Kent Berry and Austin Acree staked the North to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.

The North added deuces in the second and third.

Garret Kahmann opened the third with a base hit and Luke Farrar and Kent Berry drilled back-to-back doubles as the North upped its lead to 7-0.

The West did all of its damage in the fourth as Reid Trisler singled, Brad Williams doubled and Chase DeJean singled, trimming the margin to 7-2.

Farrar, Berry and Jon Mical Hill doubled and singled as the North out-hit the West 14-7. Brodie Graham and Daniel Hawthorne stroked a pair of singles, Acree doubled and
Tanner Zordan, Kahmann and Evan Shepard singled.

Caden Duchesne doubled and singled to pace the West, Williams doubled and DeJean, Coplen Johnson, Major Hendricks and Trisler supplied base hits.