Red River Adult Baseball League

SHREVEPORT, La. – The Elysian Fields Rangers blasted their way to a 14-4 win over the Twin City Trash Pandas to secure their 12^th Red River Adult Baseball League 18+ Division Championship, including eight in the last nine seasons. The Rangers were the     only team in the division to finish with a positive run differential, outscoring their opponents by a whopping 115 runs (158 to 43) on the year.

The Trash Pandas scored straight out of the gate to claim the early lead. Zach Young, Lucas Hatch, and Jake Pierrelee all singled as three of the first four Twin City hitters reached base. Pierrelee’s knock scored the first run, but with two outs, Hatch would score on a mishandled ground ball to put the Trash Pandas up 2-0. The Rangers would get a run back in the bottom of the first frame when Dustin Russell singled in Luke Lister, who doubled to lead off the inning.

Striking back quickly, Jalon Moss doubled for the Trash Pandas to set up a two-run second inning highlighted by a pair of defensive errors by Elysian Fields and a single by Ashton Richardson.

Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the third, the Rangers bats came alive just as their pitching and defense settled in. Elysian Fields would score the next 13 runs while recording 20 hits in the game. In the meantime, pitcher Sean Struwe hit his stride and would not allow another run in his complete game effort.

David Pratt walked to begin the Rangers rally, and after one out, Dustin Russell and Shane Goswick singled to push a run across. Michael Crews tripled to left field to score two more and Austin Duren’s single plated Crews. With four of the first five batters of the inning scoring, the Rangers took a 5-4 advantage and never looked back.

After adding another run in the fourth inning on a Pratt RBI ground out, Elysian Fields put the game away in the fifth inning with another four runs. Goswick and Crews singled and Duren’s double to center field scored both. Jathon Patton singled Duren home and promptly stole second base. Collin Eatman then drove him in with a single to right field to put the Rangers on top 10-4. They would add a pair of insurance runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to round out the scoring.

 Elysian Fields was led offensively by Russell’s 4-for-5 effort to go with three RBI. Crews and Duren each collected three hits. Crews also scored three times and Duren added three RBI.

Struwe found his stride and struck out seven over his eight innings of work. The southpaw allowed only one earned run and walked only one Twin City batter on the evening.

Elysian Fields selected Russell and Alex Woinski as co-MVPs to celebrate their successful season. At catcher, Russell was masterful behind the dish both in his defense and handling of the pitching staff while also swinging a hot stick. Woinski locked down first base for the Rangers while emerging as the most dangerous hitter in the league for 2024. He posted an on base percentage over .700 and a slugging percentage over 1.000.