Red River Adult Baseball League

SHREVEPORT, La. – The Red River Rats finished the regular season in a tie for first place but lost out on the top seed in the playoffs due to the head-to-head tiebreaker with the defending champion D’Arbonne Lake Monsters. The Rats continued    

their tightly contested winning ways with two close playoff games. However, this time it would be the Rats coming out on top to win the 2024 Red River Adult Baseball League 30+ Division championship.

After defeating the Minden Redbirds, 10-9, in the semi-finals the day before, the Rats fell behind early in the title contest against the Shreveport Storm. The fourth-seeded Storm had upset the Lake Monsters and carried that momentum over by jumping out to a 7-1 lead through the first two and a half innings. Michael Tipton’s two-run double in the second frame and Jonathan Nash’s run-scoring single in the third led the surge.    

The Rats responded with a five-run third inning to close the deficit quickly. Cedric Magee led off with a single and a stolen base and quickly scored on Joe Lockhart’s base hit to centerfield. A hit batter, singles by Cole Singleton and Josh Minter, and a sacrifice fly by Jarrod Nipper capped the scoring in the inning.

Joey Nash’s double in the fourth inning gave the Storm some breathing room momentarily, extending the lead to 9-6. The Rats knotted the game at 9-9 the next inning on a two-run double to left-center off the bat of Magee and then pulled away with four runs in the sixth. With two outs and two runners on base, Minter and Nipper came through again with back-to-back hits to put the Rats up 13-10.

The Storm would add a run to bring them within two heading into the last inning. Seven batters would come to the plate for their final opportunity, but the Storm managed only one run, leaving the bases loaded when the final out was recorded. The Rats held on for the 13-12 victory.  

Jose Leonardo Hernandez picked up the complete-game win on the mound for the Rats. The starter tossed eight innings while scattering 10 hits and picking up three strikeouts. Minter was perfect at the plate, going 4-for-4 with four RBI and four runs scored. Magee and Lockhart each collected two hits in the win.

The Nash brothers each tallied a pair of hits and runs scored in the loss for the Storm. Robert Pharr went 2-for-4 with a run as well.

The RRABL title is the eighth overall for the Rats franchise and the first since they claimed the 35+ Division crown in 2018. After the game, manager Zane Nipper selected Carlos Rosario as his team’s MVP for the season. Rosario hit .581 on the year, going 18-for-31 with 11 of those hits being extra bases, including three homeruns. He scored 20 runs and drove in 20 in 12 games played.