BY DAVE WOODALL
Slidell sports writer
BATON ROUGE – It was close but no cigar as the #27 seed Salmen Spartans lost a close game to St. Michael the Archangel 4-2 in the opening round of the state baseball playoffs.
The Spartans had their chances but came up short in their bid to oust St. Michael and post a major upset early in the brackets.
The Spartans took the lead in the second inning on a suicide squeeze by starting pitcher Drew Kennedy to go up 1-0.
St. Michael came back in the bottom of the third to claim the lead picking up three runs to go up 3-1.
There were no runs in the fourth and fifth inning but in the sixth Salmen scored two runs that were highlighted by a Dylan Cross double to make it 3-2.
But in their half of the sixth inning, St. Michael added an insurance run to close out the scoring to take a 4-2 win.
Tyler Ezell took the win for St. Michael while Kennedy was tagged with the loss giving up three runs on four hits, four walks and five strikeouts.
Cross was perfect at the plate going 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Salmen catcher Andrew Carlos was 1-for-3 with an RBI while Bryce Darby was 1-for-1 with an RBI. Rounding out the offense was Tyrone Jones who was 1-for-4 with a double.
Salmen finishes the season with an 11-17 record.