The regular season may not be ending as planned but that may turn out to be a good thing for the New Iberia Holiday Sporting Goods Cajuns.

With a local tournament set for Acadian Park this week, the Cajuns would have been turned out of Thursday’s regular season finale with Abbeville. That wouldn’t have mattered since the Post 29ers clinched the American Legion District 3-Central championship last week, and with Blue Stream, Franklin and Abbeville canceling games this week, the season would have ended a few days earlier than scheduled anyway.

That made Tuesday’s game with Blue Stream the final district game of the year for the Cajuns, who went out in style as Bryce Sibille hit his first home run in and drove in the winning run on a single as New Iberia ended the district season with a 10-0, five inning win over Blue Stream.

(Use arrows above to view more photos) Advertisement

Now the Cajuns start preparations for the sub-regional tournament with a chance to advance to the state tournament in July.

“We’re playing good baseball right now,” said Cajuns coach Shane Faucheaux. “That’s all I can say. We’re just fortunate enough to be in situations where we can put up enough runs to be finished in five innings.

“That’s just a testament to the fact the kids are playing good baseball right now.”

After sweeping three games over the weekend, New Iberia is currently on a five-game winning streak. The Cajuns will play some tuneup games this week against junior Legion teams Delcambre (tonight) and Westgate (Friday) and a couple against Abbeville next week in preparation for the sub-regional, whose dates have yet to be determined.

“We were playing different guys in different places trying to get the right nine guys to put on the field,” said Faucheaux. “At this time I think that we’re got it figured out and what better time to start playing good baseball that right around the end of the season and in the sub-regional.”

Playing good baseball is what the Cajuns did Tuesday night.

New Iberia scored two in the second, one in the third and put the game away with a big seven run fifth inning while Cody Boutte finished up the five inning game by pitching a four hit shutout.

And as it seemed to be the case all year for Blue Stream, a good game was marred by one bad inning.

“One bad inning,” said Blue Stream coach Tim Comeaux. “We were in the ballgame until the fifth inning but that one bad inning happened where we don’t make the plays that we need to make.

“I told the team that overall we accomplished what we wanted to do this summer, which was to get as many players as many innings as possible so that we could see them under game conditions.

“Some did well, some of the younger guys have a ways to go. This will be beneficial to them when we crank up again in January.”

The Cajuns, who started the summer season well before hitting a mid-season slump, seem to be hitting their stride as postseason play looms.

Sibille had two hits and two RBIs, Hunter Crochet had two hits and an RBI, Zane Migues added a double and an RBI, Cody Bourque had two hits and an RBI and Christian Guidry had a hit and an RBI.

“That’s what we’re looking for to win sub-regional and go to state,” said Crochet. “We want to come out and keep hitting the ball and playing solid defense. We had a lot of hits and no errors and if we keep doing that, our pitchers are good enough for us to keep winning ball games.”

While it was a good night for the Cajuns, it was an especially good night for Sibille, who hit his first home run in a game that actually counted for something.

Sibille, whose two other career homers have been in scrimmages, led off the third with a solo shot over the left field fence to give the Cajuns a 3-0 lead.

“It felt good,” said Sibille. “I’m not a home run hitter. It might have been the first pitch, a fastball right down the plate and I was just trying to hit a gapper. I didn’t think it had a chance to get out.”

Get out it did, however, and the rest of the team gave him a unique celebration. They waited in the dugout and mobbed him on the return instead of meeting Sibille at home plate as is normally done.

“They played a little joke on me,” said Sibille. “But it felt good anyway.”

As for the remainder of the season, Comeaux said that Tuesday’s game was the last one for Blue Stream while the Cajuns travel to Delcambre tonight for a 7 p.m. game and will play at Westgate Friday at 7 p.m. Any games next week for New Iberia will be announced later.