By Brad Greer

Throughout this baseball season, North Delta has relied on a solid defense to carry them to a district championship and a birth in the state playoffs.

But that same defense led to  their undoing Tuesday afternoon as the Green Wave made four costly errors that led to three unearned runs as Bayou blanked North Delta 5-0 to take a 1-0 lead in the first game of their best-of- three game series for the North State championship.

Due to the heavy rains this week, game two will be played in Cleveland today at 4 p.m. while a game three, if necessary, will be played at North Delta tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Bayou (21-3) broke open a scoreless game in the fifth inning by scoring four runs off two Green Wave errors. That would turn out to be plenty of run support for Colt starting pitcher Winn Roark who held the Green Wave bats to four hits in 5.1 innings of work to earn the victory on the mound. Stewart Salley worked 1.2 innings in relief while escaping out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh.

Leadoff hitter Brandon Cummins got the fifth-inning Colt rally started with a one-out single. Austin Payne followed with a dribbler back to the mound that handcuffed North Delta pitcher Jim Tom Copeland that put runners on first and second. John Mangialardi then roped a single into left to drive in Cummins for the initial run.

After Roark flied out for the second out, Copeland walked Salley to load the bases. The Wave looked as if they would get out of the inning when Trey Wells hit a routine grounder to third, but North Delta’s  Austin Gant uncorked a throw over first baseman Michael Magee’s head that allowed two runs to cross the plate. Chase Aguzzi RBI single to left  plated Salley for a 4-0 Colt lead.

“Errors is what killed us all day today. The score did not reflect on the final outcome of the game. Jim Tom pitched a great game. We just did not make the plays in the field and when playing a team as good a Bayou you cannot give them extra chances at the plate and that is what we did,“ said North Delta head coach Stoney Stone.

Copeland, (6-3), went all seven innings while giving up two earned runs on six hits, striking out 10 and walking three. Both teams left nine runners on base, but North Delta stranded runners in scoring position five of the seven innings.

“Another key factor was we left too many people on the base paths. We did not swing the bats like we normally do. We have been aggressive at the plate and swinging at good pitches but today we just lost our approach. We have got to come out and get our focus back in the next game,” said Stone.

North Delta (15-7) had a chance to take the lead in the second as Ethan Taylor led off the inning by reaching on a error. Gant then blasted a double into deep left that looked as if it would score Taylor, but a perfect relay throw from Payne nailed Taylor at the plate.

Copeland led off the fourth with a single, but was caught too far from first when Gant popped up a bunt that turned into a inning-ending double play. Over the next two innings, the Green Wave would strand runners on first and second with less than two outs.

The Wave looked to rally in the seventh as Hunter West lead off the inning with a single followed by Britt Lawrence reaching on a catchers’ interference call. Salley then struck out Bailey Gurkert and Geri Lamm but then walked Michael Magee on a full count. Salley then put out the fire by getting Copeland to fly out to end the game.

North Delta collected six hits on the day as Gant doubled while Magee, Copeland, West and Gurkert all singled.