You just knew, sooner or later, we were going to be in a dogfight with them.  As it turned out, Thursday night on the hill we had a toe to toe slugfest.  But when it was over, all you could do is look at the scoreboard and smile........Broncos 8 St. Louis 7!  On senior night, with the distict championship locked up for the third year in a row and St. Louis' future in the
hands of the LHSAA, nobody was sure what kind of game we would get.  What we saw
was an awesome baseball game.  The Broncos shut down the Saints in the top of the 1st inning with 2 quick strike outs by starting pitcher Cody Rider then a pop up to left for out number 3.  The Broncos came out in their half of the 1st as Andrew Guillotte walked but was forced out at 2nd on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Donovan Landry.   Senior center fielder DJ Johnson then blasted a  2 run home run over the left center field fence to make it a quick 2-0 lead.  Evan Powell, not wanting to out done by Johnson, then hit a line drive home run to right center to make it 3-0. After a strike out, Garrett Logan hit a single, Chance Terrell came in to courtesy run for G-Lo and promptly stole 2nd base.  Billy Sommers then hit a single to right to make it 4-0 and you would have thought the rout was on.  But as baseball does sometimes, fortunes quickly turned.  The Saints came out in the top of the 2nd to make a game of it.  Rider plunked the first batter in the back with a fastball and the Saints next batter hit a fly ball over the head of the left fielder Dylan Champagne for a double.  The Saints then scored their first 2 runs of the game with a single up the middle to make the score 4-2.  The Broncos then got defensive with a nifty Powell to Guillotte to Sommers (5-4-3) double play and eventually got out of the inning as the last batter hit one deep in the hole which SS Travis Montgomery backhanded and threw to Sommers at 1st,  who dug it out of the dirt for the last out.  The Broncos then blew an opportunity in the 2nd to open a huge lead. Champagne opened the inning with a single and was moved to 2nd on Guillotte's sacrifice bunt.  Landry then had an infield single moving Champagne to 3rd. With the bases loaded and only 1 out, the Broncos failed to capitalize as the next two batters  flew out failing to get the runs in.  The Saints evened the score at 4 in the top of the third as Rider hit the 1st batter he faced when the next Saint hit a shot that went off Powell's glove at 3rd, Montgomery then
barehanded the ball and threw perfectly to the outstretched Sommers at 1st.  The next batter hit one in the trees to knot the score.  The Broncos went back up in their half of the 3rd with a monster homerun by G-Lo to left center.  Sommers then hit a single but was forced out at 2nd by the next Bronco batter who bounced into a fielder's choice.  After another fielder's choice, Guillotte hit a single bringing up Landry.  Dono then slapped a single to score Champagne to make it 6-4 Broncos.  The Saints then went quietly in the 4th as the Broncos added another run with two outs.  G-Lo walked, (Terrell courtesy ran for G-Lo), Sommers then collected his 3rd hit of the game sending a single up the middle moving Terrell to 2nd.  Both Bronco runners advanced on a wild pitch and Terrell then scored on another wild pitch.  Montgomery walked but was left at 2nd and Sommers at 3rd on a strike out.  The Saints added one in the 5th on a double, passed ball and a single to make the score 7-5. Powell replaced Rider on the bump and got the first batter to pop up and struck out the next Saint.  The Broncos added an insurance run in the bottom of the 5th as Landry reached on an error by the Saints 2nd baseman, stole 2nd and scored on 2 wild pitches.  With the score 8-5 going into the 6th  and new pitcher Powell cruising,  the Broncos seemed in control.  Not.  Quickly the Saints jumped up with 2 hits and a walk and be it not for two base running blunders might have taken the lead.  The
first batter hit a single, followed by a pop up to Rider at 3rd.  The 4th batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases.  The next Saint sent a drive deep to left field scoring 2 then kept going to 3rd but the runner at 3rd held up catching the runner going to third in a hot box.  The runner at 3rd broke for home but was gunned down at the plate by Montgomery.  The next batter walked to place runners at the corner.  Then for whatever reason, he got picked off first, tried to get himself into a hotbox to allow the runner at 3rd to score but was tagged out before the runner crossed the plate to end the threat with the Broncos holding on to an 8-7 lead.  The Broncos failed to score in their half of the 6th after G-Lo hit a single (his 3rd hit of the game), Sommers then got on by another error at 2nd, then both advanced on a wild pitch.  With runners at 2nd and 3rd and no outs, the next 3 Bronco hitters went down in order.  Powell then struck out 2 of the next 3 Saints to end the ballgame.  Whew!!  Rider pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 6 hits, striking out 3 and walking 2 and hitting 2.  Powell gave up 2 runs on 2 hits, striking out 3 and walking 1 and hitting 1.  Top Bronco hitters were Landry 2-4 (2 runs 1 rbi), DJ 1-3 (1 run, 1 hr, 2 rbi's), Powell 1-3 (1 run, 1 hr, 1 rbi), G-Lo 3-3 (3 runs, 1 hr, 1 rbi), Sommers 3-4 (1 rbi).  The Broncos district record is now 11-0.