Kinder overcomes adversity, battles No. 1 and District 5-2A leader Rosepine

Published 12:01 pm Thursday, April 14, 2022

With 10 days and five games left in the high school baseball regular season, Kinder wants to stay in the top four in the Class 2A power ratings.

They will face their biggest challenge in No. 1 Rosepine at 6 p.m. today at Kinder High School.

“Rosepine has the top seed sewed up,” Kinder head coach Rick Whittington said. “We are sitting at No. 4. Then we have four games next week and playoffs the following week. It is important to us.”

Rosepine (22-2, 7-0) owns an 18-game win streak and a win would give the defending Class 2A state champ at least a share of the District 5-2A title.

Since starting the season 5-5, Kinder (14-8, 6-1) has won nine of its last 12 games.

“I am proud of my guys through the adversity they have faced,” Whittington said. “At one point we had nine kids out with the flu and played three games.

“Then we had Will Fontenot, at the same time, diagnosed with leukemia. We have had deaths of close relatives and a lot of adversity. They are a different team than when we started. They compete from start to finish.”

Whittington said he expects Rosepine to send LSU signee Ethan Frey to the mound. Frey is 3-0 and earned a save the last time the teams met. He is batting over .500 with 40 RBIs and 10 home runs.

“I don’t know who I am pitching for sure tonight, but I know we are probably going to face Ethan Frey, probably the best player in Louisiana,” Whittington. “Every time he gets up to bat, one swing can change the game.”

Whittington said he hopes to clean up the mistakes made in a 4-1 loss to the Eagles on March 29.

“The last time we played them we gave up three runs in the first inning on errors,” Whittington said. “We came back 3-1 and had the bases loaded twice with a chance to take the lead and we didn’t capitalize.”

Junior shortstop Lance LeBeouf (.409) leads the Yellow Jackets, including four RBIs and five runs in his last two games.

“He is vocal and the most improved on our team,” Whittington said. “Last year he batted .043. He is currently batting .409. He has gone up 400 points on his batting.”