Colts one win away from League World Series

Hayden Erbe has yet to pitch his first inning for the Crowley Gents, but he already has some CHS players and fans counting the days until he does.

Erbe, who moved to Crowley from Lafayette this summer with his parents and plans to enroll at CHS next month, already has a following in his new home town, especially after his performance Sunday with the Acadiana Cajuns, a Colt League team with a number of Crowley players competing in the 2014 Zone Tournament.

Erbe got the nod on the mound for the Cajuns in their biggest game of the tournament Sunday and the hard-throwing youngster didn’t disappoint.

The former Lafayette High product scattered five hits and struck out five in helping the Cajuns shock pre-tournament favorite Brownsville, 5-1, in the winner’s bracket finals.

The victory sent the locals, the lone undefeated team left in the tournament, into the championship game yesterday where they had to be beaten twice.

“Hayden threw a great game today,” said Cajuns’ coach Dwayne Thibodeaux. “He really had good command out there and his velocity was up. He worked out of a few jams and basically just kept them (Brownsville) off balance the whole game.”

Brownsville, a perennial power in Colt League (ages 15-16) threatened on three occasions, but Erbe and the Cajuns managed to get out of each without much if any damage.

The first time was early when the Texas team threatened in the first inning with runners at the corners with no outs.

But Erbe coaxed the next batter into a ground ball to shortstop for the first out before striking out the next batter. He closed out the inning by getting the leadoff batter to fly out to center field.

One inning later, the Cajuns staked him to a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

Notre Dame’s Taylor Faulk got things going with a leadoff single.  Acadiana’s Derek Boutin then reached base on a grounder to shortstop and Crowley High’s Alex Ashby followed with a bunt single that sent Faulk home for the first run.

Jon Riley Mouton, another CHS product, followed with an RBI single before scoring himself on an error.

Suddenly, it was 3-0.

“When you’re playing a team as good as Brownsville, you have to capitalize on every opportunity that you get and we did that in the third inning,” said Thibodeaux. “We were able to put some pressure on them with some bunts and some choppers in the infield that we were able to beat out.”

Ashby and Mouton also provided the offensive spark in the fourth, when the Cajuns extended their lead.

With two outs, Boutin drew a walk and Ashby followed with an RBI double to the left center field gap.

Not to be outdone, Mouton followed that with an RBI double down the left field line and the Cajuns led 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth.

“We did a good job of stringing together a few hits with two outs,” said Thibodeaux. “Those two runs were huge for us and it gave our pitcher a little more room for error.”

Erbe got into his biggest jam in the bottom of the fifth when Brownsville was able to load the bases with two outs.  But just as he had earlier, he settled in and got Noel Sonie to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.

Brownsville finally got to Erbe in the sixth when Balta Guzman logged an RBI triple to cut the lead to 5-1.

And they threated in the seventh when a leadoff single turned into a runner at third due to an error.

A tiring Erbe left the mound at that point and Boutin entered and  got out of the inning unscathed, the Cajuns ending the game with a double play.

“This was a big victory for us,” said Thibodeaux. “It put us in the driver’s seat heading into the finals, but we still have some work to do.

“It’s going to be a battle out there. We just have to go out there, relax and have fun and everything will take care of itself.” 

The Cajuns were scheduled to play Burleson, Texas, Monday in the championship round. The winner of the tournament advances to the Colt League World Series beginning Friday in Lafayette, Ind. where their first-round opponent will be a team from the Philippines.