Michael Kiral / L’Observateur / June 15, 1998

BOUTTE – Sometimes it is a play early in a baseball game that will have the biggest impact on the game’s outcome.

Right fielder Dewey Matherne’s diving catch of Scott Ocmond’s looping fly ball in the third saved two runs which proved to be the difference as Otto Candies defeated the Lutcher Dugout Club, 8-6, Wednesday afternoon.

The win was the first of the American Legion season for Otto candies (1-4 overall, 1-3 in Second District East) while Lutcher fell to 0-5 and 0-3.

Otto Candies starting pitcher Matt Caire (1-1) caught a second wind after allowing three runs in the third to go the distance. Caire gave up sevenhits while walking five and striking out eight.

“We got the first one out of the way,” Otto Candies coach Britt Oubre said.

“Matt gave up a few runs and caught a second wind. I really wanted him tofinish and I glad he could.”Otto Candies opened the scoring in the bottom of the second as Tommy Theriot singled to short and Chris Hawkins followed with a home run over the right field fence against Lutcher starter Rusty Crosslin.

Lutcher answered in the top of the third as Wesley Louque doubled to right field. After Louque went to third on a fly out by Rob Bleakley, Bo Louquesingled past short to cut the deficit in half.

One out later, Jeremy Martin walked and both runners moved up on a wild pitch with Damian Ursin at the plate. Ursin then singled up the middle,scoring both runners to give Lutcher a 3-2 lead, and moved to second as the ball got past center fielder Kade Rogers. A walk by Lee Poche and twowild pitches put runners and second and third with two outs.

Ocmond followed with a fly ball to short right field. Matherne ran in anddove for the ball, grabbing it just above the ground for the third out.

“I just saw the ball off the bat and knew I had to make the big catch,” Matherne, who made the transition from first base to right field before the Legion season started, said. “At the time it didn’t seem like a bigcatch but now I realize it was.”Otto Candies began its rally in the fourth. Hawkins opened the inning byreaching on an error by second baseman Trent Bourgeois. Courtesy runnerTim Sirmon then stole second and scored as Eric Donnaud lined a single to left. Donnaud also stole second and scored the go-ahead run as JustinChampagne lined a double to center field. Champagne went to third on asacrifice by Mike Picard and scored on Brad Foreman’s fly ball to left, giving Otto Candies a 5-3 lead.

That lead was extended to 8-3 in the bottom of the fifth as Hawkins walked and Donnaud singled to center off reliever Risley St. Germainewith two outs. Sirmon, running for Hawkins, scored as Champagne singledto left. Picard followed with a shot past Martin at third, bringing inDonnaud to make it 7-3.

With Foreman at the plate, Picard broke for second and Champagne for the plate. St. Germaine throw home was wide of the plate, allowingChampagne to score.

Lutcher began to rally in the top of the seventh. With one out, CleavonWebster walked, went to second on a wild pitch and scored as Foreman threw past first on Martin’s grounder to short. Ursin followed with a shotover the left field fence, cutting the Otto Candies lead to 8-6.

Poche kept the rally alive by reaching on Picard’s throw in the dirt from third and going to second on a wild pitch. But Caire shut the door bygetting Ocmond to fly out right and Lane Vicknair to ground out to second.

“I thought it was a good ballgame,” Lutcher coach Matt Dornier said.

“Errors hurt us. We had decent pitching and six runs should be enough towin a game. But we are playing with enthusiasm and learning and maturingfor next year. We have a lot of growing pains to go through.”

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