Morgan City 12s top St. Mary Central for district title

Morgan City broke open a close game with a four-run sixth inning for a 6-1 victory against St. Mary Central in the District 3 Majors (12U) Championship game Monday at Caffery Park in Franklin.
While Morgan City led just 2-1 heading into the top of the sixth, they erupted for four runs, including back-to-back home runs in the inning. Trent Hillen had a two-run home run and Zack Bennett had a solo shot to lead Morgan City’s scoring in the inning.
Earlier in the game, Luke Barbier added a solo home run.
Morgan City outhit St. Mary Central 11-1, as Hillen tossed a complete-game one-hitter with 14 strikeouts. In six innings, he surrendered one run and three walks.
Both Morgan City and St. Mary Central will be advancing to the next round of the postseason as St. Mary Central will head to the north regional in Winnsboro, while Morgan City will head to Ponchatoula.
“All around, all the kids did great,” Morgan City coach Beau Theriot said. “The pitching makes this game easy for us. The pitchers that we have, our ace Luke Barbier and our ace Trent Hillen, who threw six innings just now and was awesome.”
He also commended catcher Zack Bennett, and his infield.
The win for Morgan City avenged a 3-1 defeat to St. Mary Central earlier in exhibition invitational play.
“I’m very, very proud of the team for this weekend,” said Theriot, whose team outscored opponents 29-1 en route to a 4-0 mark.
In Tuesday’s game, Morgan City took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on an RBI by Hugh Hamer to score Brett Morell.
Morgan City added another run in the top of the fourth via Barbier’s solo home run.
St. Mary Central came back with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Ryan Domingue scored after a teammate put the ball in play.
“I thought … (starting pitcher) Carter Williams did a really good job pitching, keeping us in it, giving us a chance,” St. Mary Central head coach John Menard said. “In that last inning right there, he made a couple pitches to some really good hitters and they put a couple good swings on it. At the plate, we need to have a little bit more discipline. … Trent’s very good, and a few times he missed up, and we didn’t have the discipline to lay off.”
Offensively, Hillen led Morgan City with a 2-for-3 performance with a home run and two RBIs, while Bennett and Barbier each were 2-for-3 with a home run and an RBI.
Other top offensive contributors included Dylan Cornes, 2-for-3 with an RBI; Hamer, 1-for-3, an RBI and a run; Morell, 1-for-3 with an RBI; and Gunnar Theriot, 1-for-3.
Carter “Jojo” Williams suffered the loss for St. Mary Central. In 5.1 innings, he surrendered five earned runs on seven hits with one walk and fanned three.
Offensively, Brannon Chasson finished 1-for-2 for St. Mary Central.
Patterson wins
tournament finale
Patterson’s 12s won its district tournament finale as the team defeated Thibodaux 14-2 Monday in Franklin.
The two runs Thibodaux scored came via an overthrow, according to coach Nate Samuels.
Kaden Samuels and Reid Perkins split the innings for the team on the mound.
Coach Samuels said all of the players in his lineup had a hit in the win.
“I was very pleased how our boys finished the tournament and went out on a positive note,” Samuels said. “We finished out 2-2 on the weekend only being separated to moving on from tie breaker rules with (two) other teams in the tournament. Definitely hard for us to go down like this knowing we were right on the edge of moving on in postseason play.”