Staff reports

SHREVEPORT, La. - Larry Dyson Motors Durant American Legion improved to 5-1 on the season by opening with a pair of wins in pool play of the Centenary Invitational Friday.

LDM went into extra innings to beat Captain Shreve, 2-1, in the opener. In the second game, Durant topped the Dallas Diamond Jaxx, 6-0.

Durant was scheduled to play Airline, Saturday morning and follow against Minneola.

“We're probably going to need to win all four to advance to bracket play. If not we'd just have to hope for a tie-breaker with another team with the same amount of losses,” said LDM coach Justin Bowen.

Results of Saturday's games were not available at presstime, but will be updated throughout the weekend on the durantdemocrat.com Web site.

In the opener Cody Wheeler tossed seven innings with six strikeouts and four hits allowed. His only run was unearned, and Steve Gilbert ended up recording the win in relief. He threw the next two innings, striking out one and allowing no hits.

Atlee Kile led the offense, going 2-3 with an RBI. Wheeler was 2-4 as the only other Durant player with multiple hits. Chad Colbert was 1-2, while DeWayne Betts was 1-3 with a run scored. Nathan Willis scored the LDM's other run as a courtesy runner for Kile.

In the second game, Matt Cartwright fanned nine in five innings and scattered two hits on the way to the win. Torey Oller worked the last two innings, striking out three without giving up a hit.

Brandon Wells went 2-2 with a triple and two runs, while Colbert was 1-2 with a double, run and three RBIs to lead the offense.

Kile was 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored, while Wheeler was 1-2 with an RBI. Betts and Oller were each 1-3.

Larry Dyson Motors will follow the Centenary Tournament with a four-game set on the road against the Burkburnett BlackSox. The first doubleheader begins 6 p.m. Tuesday. The second starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Durant will play four more road dates over the next couple of weeks before returning home to host the Paris All-Stars, June 28 at 6 p.m.