Matt Vines

COUSHATTA – Big shoes to fill.

Red River baseball is coming off its best season in program history with a quarterfinals appearance and a 25-win season.

It’s a team that graduated six seniors, including four (Tyler Hughes, Jaxun Moore, Chris Carper and Bryce Hunt) that signed to play college baseball.

But when Red River steps back onto the field Monday to kick off the regular season of coach Todd Moore’s second campaign in Coushatta, the Bulldogs still have expectations to be a contender in Division III Non-Select.

Red River hosts Zwolle on Monday at 5 p.m. as the Bulldogs start with one game per week each of the first three weeks, followed by Converse and Captain Shreve.

“This team definitely has some big shoes to fill with the losses of a terrific senior group from last year’s team,” Moore said. “However, we do have a very solid senior and junior class that have logged a lot of varsity game time.”

Despite losing two of their top pitchers in Hughes and Moore (Hughes also caught and was picked to the LHSCA All-Star game as a catcher), Red River does valuable arms coming back.

Seniors Aston Hester and John Dickey IV spearhead what’s still a deep pitching rotation.

Dickey, who stands at 6-foot-5, has already committed to Bossier Parish Community College.

The Bulldogs will have to replace some of their top bats, but guys like Jake Pierce, Dickey, Hunter Tingle, Kade Martinez and Nolan Moore have plenty of quality at-bats under their belts.

However the bats certainly weren’t quiet Saturday in the team’s jamboree against Byrd in a 13-13 tie.

“Both Dickey and Hester came in clutch for us last season and should eat up a lot of innings on the mound,” Todd Moore said. “I actually feel very good about our pitching depth, defense and offense going into the season.

“We have some new coaches in different positions, and they’ve done a tremendous job this fall.”

Moore credited a strong offseason before the success of his inaugural campaign, and now Red River had the benefit of a full offseason under Moore before the 2025 slate begins.

Moore, who took St. Frederick and Sterlington to Class 2A championship games in his high school coaching career, aims to lead the Bulldogs on another deep playoff run.