ANDRE BURL / L’Observateur / April 20, 1999

BOUTTE – Thibodaux tightened the District 6-5A race with a 10-8 victory at Hahnville Saturday morning, handing the Tigers their first district loss of the season.

Hahnville leads District 6-5A with a 9-1 record and a record of 18-6 overall, a game ahead of East St. John (17-12, 8-2). Thibodaux is in thirdplace with a 6-3 district record.

Cody Cortez opened the game by beating out a infield hit to shortstop.

Jacob Naquin stepped up and bounced a single up the middle. Both runnersadvanced as Blake Leger grounded out to third and Casey Rodrigue walked to load the bases.

Hahnville starting pitcher Erik Donnaud walked Ryan Landry to force in Cortez from third. Brandon Ber then drilled a single to right field, scoringNaquin.

Brandon Usey followed with a dribbler back to the mound. Donnaud threwhome to get Rodrigue but Chris Hawkins’ throw to first went past the bag, scoring courtesy runner Kenny Lacey to make it 3-0. Dirk Dempster fliedout to end the inning.

Aaron Larose slapped a double off the wall in right field to open the second inning. Cortez reached on an error on a fly ball to center to putrunners at first and second. Naquin laid down a bunt with Donnaud forcingLarose at third. After a force out by Leger, Rodrigue drilled a single toright, scoring Naquin from second to make it 4-0.

Hahnville got three runs back in the bottom of the inning. After a walk byDonnaud opened the inning, Brian Risinger hit a grounder back to Leger.

Leger threw to second to force Donnaud but the throw back to first was high, allowing Risinger to go to second. Mike Picard followed with a singleto put runners at the corners.

Tim Sirmon then came to the plate and hit a single to the wall in right, scoring Risinger from third. After a wild pitch and a grounder moved therunners along, Kade Rogers tagged a drive to the gap in left-center, bringing in two runs.

Thibodaux came back with two in the third. Ber led off by reaching on anerror and came around to score on a single by Dempster. Dempster wouldcome in to score to make it 6-3 as Larose reached on an error.

Thibodaux built a 10-3 lead in the fourth as Leger reached on an error and Rodrigue singled to left field. Landry then stepped in and drilled a curveball over the fence for a three-run shot.

Hahnville coach Britten Oubre then went to the bullpen and called Matt Caire to the mound.

Two outs later, Seth Hebert doubled to center field. Larose then stepped inand bounced a ground rule double over the right field fence, scoring courtesy runner Kainell Leblanc.

Hahnville pulled closer in the fifth. With one out, Sirmon ripped a hardliner past short. Jeff Williams followed with a single to the gap in right-center, putting runners at the corners. Sirmon scored on a sacrifice fly tocenter by Rogers to make it 10-4.

Kelly then grounded to short with an error on the exchange at second loading the bases. Hawkins then kept the inning alive by doubling off theright field fence, scoring Williams.

Dewey Matherne followed with a double off the wall in right, bringing in two runs to cut the deficit to 10-7.

Caire kept Thibodaux scoreless the rest of the way. With one out in thebottom of the seventh, Hawkins walked and courtesy runner Blake Matherne stole second base. After a walk by Dewey Matherne, Leo Naquincame in to pitch for Thibodaux.

Donnaud greeted Naquin with a hard single to right, scoring Blake Matherne and pulling Hahnville to within 10-8.

But Naquin came back to retire the next two batters to preserve the win.

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