MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / July 3, 1999

DESTREHAN – For the second consecutive game, Otto Candies got a three- hit effort by its starting pitcher as the Hahnville-based team moved closer to the Second District East River Parishes Division title with a 11- 7 victory at East St. Charles Post 366/195 Wednesday afternoon.Otto Candies (9-5, 8-3) could have clinched the division title with a victory either Thursday or Friday night against the Lutcher Dugout Club.

East St. Charles (4-12, 3-11) had its three-game district winning streaksnapped.

Erik Donnaud (2-0) went six innings for Otto Candies, allowing one run on three hits while walking four and striking out three. Matt Caire hadpitched a complete game three-hitter Monday against Cretin Homes.

Otto Candies combined eight hits with eight errors and seven walks by East St. Charles to put their 11 runs on the board.”Donnaud pitched a hell of a ballgame today,” Otto Candies coach Britt Oubre said. “They had a couple of errors and a few walks and we hit theball and were able to build up runs.”East St. Charles loaded the bases with two outs in the first as MartyBoudreaux, Danny Krieger and Craig Naquin walked before Donnaud struck out Jason Pick to end the inning.

Otto Candies broke through first as Donnaud drew a walk from Naquin to lead off the second. With one out, courtesy runner Dustin Rousselladvanced to third on a double to left-center by Caire and scored on an errant throw to second.

East St. Charles prevented further trouble as center fielder Shane LeBoydgrabbed Tim Sirmon’s fly ball and threw a strike to the plate to get Caire.

East St. Charles tied the game in the bottom of the third. With one out,Boudreaux singled to left and stole second. After advancing to third on asingle to left by Todd Picou, Boudreaux came home on the front end of a double steal attempt.

Brandon Kelly regained the lead for Otto Candies with a home run to left in the top half of the fourth. After Donnaud walked with one out, Theriot hita grounder to short. Roussell, running for Donnaud, was forced out butTheriot advanced to second on an errant throw to first. Caire followedwith a single to right-center, bringing in Theriot to make it 3-1.

Otto Candies made it 6-1 in the fifth. With one out, Kade Rogers drew awalk from Krieger, who had come in to relieve Naquin, and went to second an error on a pick-off attempt.

After a fly out by Kelly, Rogers advanced to third on an error on another pick-off and scored as Chris Hawkins reached on an error. Courtesy runnerMike Picard stole second with Donnaud following with a walk.

Theriot then singled to center, scoring Picard and sending Roussell to third. Roussell then scored as Theriot got into a run-down on an attemptedsteal of second.

Otto Candies broke the game open with six runs in the top of the seventh.

Kelly opened the inning with a single to left and Hawkins followed with a walk.

Donnaud then singled to left to score Kelly with Picard going to third and Donnaud to second on an errant throw to the plate. Theriot followed bybeating out a chopper along the third baseline, bringing in Picard to make it 8-1.

LeBoyd came in to pitch with pinch hitter Todd Folse greeting him with a single to center, scoring Roussell. A high throw to second on a grounderback to the mound by Brandon Casanova loaded the bases with none out.

Theriot then came in to score on a wild pitch to make it 10-1.

One out later, Brian Risinger and Rogers walked to force in Folse. Kellythen hit a fly ball to center with Casanova called out on the appeal for leaving third early.

Picard came in to relieve Donnaud in the bottom of the seventh. LarryMatherne started the inning with a single to left and Donnie Hollis followed with a walk.

After pinch runner Jeff Vitrano was picked off second, Hollis beat out the throw to second on LeBoyd’s grounder. Walks by Justin St. Pierre andBoudreaux forced in Hollis to make it 11-2. Picou then stepped in anddoubled to left-center, bringing home LeBoyd and St. Pierre. A sacrifice fly to center by Krieger scored Boudreaux, cutting the deficit to 11-5. Naquin followed with a home run deep over the left field fence,bringing East St. Charles to within 11-7 before Picard came back to strikeout Pick to end the game.

“We didn’t play well at all today,” East St. Charles coach Mark Willoughbysaid. “We didn’t have focus and that was frustrating. “It was just a tough day. But that’s baseball. It happens to everybody andit definitely killed us today.”

Correction: The picture of the Otto Candies runner in Wednesday’s paper was misidentified. The runner was Jeff Williams. L’Observateur regretsthe error.

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

Internet services provided by NeoSoft.

Best viewed with 3.0 or higher