The Jena Giants played three games this past week, picking up wins against district opponent Bunkie and a big win over Division IV Non-Select powerhouse Oak Grove.
On Monday, March 17, the Giants traveled to Pineville and despite a big threerun homerun from Zoyle Gemar, the Giants would lose 16-6.
On Tuesday, March 18, the Giants looked to stay unbeaten in district play as the Bunkie Panthers came to town. Jena would quickly take a 4-2 lead with 3 runs in the first inning and 1 run in the second inning. Bunkie would tie the game at 4 in the top of the 3rd inning. But from that point on, the Giants would score 11 runs and would go on to win 15-5 in 6 innings.
Collin Jensen would pick up his second win in district play as he pitched all 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts.
Junior catcher Carson Willis had a big game for the Giants as he went 4-4 with 4 RBIs and 2 runs scored. Freshman left fielder Jonas Jenkins went 2-3 with a double, an RBI, and 3 runs scored. With the win the Giants are now 2-0 in district play.
On Friday, March 21, the Giants traveled to Oak Grove to take on the state powerhouse Oak Grove Tigers. Oak Grove has won four state championships in a row coming into this season and are the favorites to win in their division this season.
The Giants would score two runs in the first inning but Oak Grove would score 3 runs in the third inning to take their first lead of the game. The Giants would answer with 3 runs in the fourth inning and 5 runs in the fifth inning, including a home run from senior centerfielder Cayden Mursch.
Oak Grove would score 2 runs in the sixth inning but that would be it as Jena would go to on to pick up a big 7-5 victory.
Senior Calex Campbell came in relief to pick up the win as he pitched 4.1 innings allowing just two earned runs while striking out seven.
Cayden Mursch and Jonas Jenkins both finished with 2 hits while Collin Jensen had 2 RBIs.
With the win the Giants are now 16-7 overall on the season and are ranked #9 in the Division III Non-Select power rankings.
This week the Giants will be at Hackberry on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 2 pm.
