For only the third time in school history, the Jena Giants baseball team earned their way into the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs.
After the Giants had a thrilling comeback in the second round series with Doyle, the Giants advanced to the quarterfinals where they would take on the #2 Erath Bobcats. The Giants would have to travel to Erath as they were the lower seed. Both teams would come into the series trying to make it to the semifinal round for the first time in school history. The series would be scheduled for Friday and Saturday but on Friday night, storms would come through and push the start of the series to Saturday. So on Saturday, the Giants would play Game 1 at 4:00 p.m. and then would play Game 2 directly after Game 1 for a double-header.
Game 1 would be a good one to start as both pitchers would pitch well and it would be low scoring to start. In the fourth inning though, Erath’s bats would come alive and the team had a big inning to put the game away. Erath would go on to win 10-0 in 6 innings.
Erath would get a complete game shutout from senior starter Seth Leger, who is signed to play with LSUA. Collin Jensen would pitch well for Jena as he pitched 5 innings, giving up 5 runs on 8 hits and finishing with 5 strikeouts. The Giants would get hits in the game from Cayden Mursch, Carson Willis and Kyler Chevallier.
Game 2 would be very similar to Game 1 with the game being low scoring early until the 4th inning when Erath would once again have a big inning. Erath would get another complete game shutout from junior pitcher Talan Landry and would go on to win 9-0. Erath would win the series and move on to the semifinal round where they will host the defending state champions in South Beauregard.
Even though it wasn’t the result that the Giants wanted, they can still be proud of the great season that they had. The Giants finished with 24 wins on the season.
Head Coach Clay McGuffee and staff did a great job this season getting the Giants to the quarterfinals for only the third time in school history.
The Giants will look a lot different next season for the first time in a while as the Giants will graduate a senior class full of starters that have been starting for multiple years now. The Giants will return a core group of young players led by Carson Willis, Collin Jensen and Jonas Jenkins that will look to compete for a district championship next season.
Congratulations Giants on another great season.
