The Americans, which won four straight games after falling short in the tournament opener, squandered an early 5-0 lead and were eliminated from the field with a 9-5 loss to Brownsville.
“They (Brownsville) were trying to save their pitching so we did our job and scored as many runs as we could on their starter before they brought their No. 1 in,” said Americans’ coach Timmy Robichaux. “And we did a good job of putting the ball in play on their No. 1 later in the game, we just couldn’t score anymore runs.”
Crowley got on the board in the fist inning with an RBI single from Joe Faulk and then added three more runs in the second on RBI hits from Pate Broussard, Jon-Riley Mouton and Alex Ashby. The locals added another run in the third on a wild pitch.
Brownsville answered right back and tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the fourth courtesy of three doubles and two singles.
Brownsville ace Villereal Solis took the mound after that and limited Crowley to just three hits while striking out nine over the final four innings.
“He (Solis) threw hard and had a hard breaking pitch,” said Robichaux. “We were just trying to hold on to those five runs.
“Once I saw we couldn’t push across any more runs, I knew five runs wasn’t going to hold those guys and they worked their way back.”
Brownsville took a 6-5 lead in the fifth inning and added three more runs in the seventh to put the game away.
Crowley had one last chance in the bottom of the seventh inning. Ashby drew a leadoff walk and Shea Zaunbrecher had a one-out single to put runners at first and third base. But a sharp grounder off the bat of Sam Hoffpauir resulted in a game-ending double play.
“We had a shot in the last inning with Sam up and two runners on,” said Robichaux. “If he could have got a hold of one, we would have just been down one.”
Daigle suffered the loss after giving up six runs on eight hits and one walk in five innings of work.
“Bubba did a great job and gave us a chance,” said Robichaux.
On the night, the Americans had nine hits.
Mouton led the way with three singles and one RBI. Ashby added two doubles and Zaunbrecher had two singles. Broussard and Faulk rounded out the offense with one hit each.
Overall, the Americans won four straight games to reach the semifinals and outscored their opponents 46-15 during that stretch.
“Leading up to the Super Regional, we had a little bit of layoff time and we really didn’t hit the ball like we were capable of,” said Robichaux. “The good side of being in the loser’s bracket was that, playing that many games back-to-back, we were able to get our timing down and we started hitting the ball really well. That’s what really propelled us.”
The pitching side was also good for the Americans, who went into the semifinals with their top three pitchers - Joe Faulk, Pate Broussard and Shea Zaunbrecher - unavailable.
“Everyone was able to get us deep into games or go the distance and that was big for us,” said Robichaux.
“Overall, this was a great summer for this group. It was a great experience for them. They gained a lot of good experience having to get through the tournament and having to fight to get to the semifinals. It’s a good group and I think they learned a lot.”
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