MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / March 29, 2000

LAPLACE – The last time Lutcher and St. Charles Catholic met, Bulldog coachScott Tribble was discussing how his team was not getting a quantity of hits but that it was getting the quality hits.

Saturday afternoon at Comet Field, the Bulldogs got both.

Lutcher got 15 hits, including two home runs by Risley St. Germain, to defeatSt. Charles Catholic, 15-2. The game was called after five innings due to the10-run rule.

Lutcher increased its lead in District 9-3A to two games, improving to 5-0 in district and 14-2 overall. St. Charles Catholic fell into a tie for second placewith E.D. White at 3-2 in district and 9-7-1 overall.It didn’t take long for the Bulldogs to get on track Saturday. After Cometstarter Dustin Braud struck out the first two batters of the game, Tray Haydel reached him for a single to left. Haydel stole second and scored asDamian Ursin lined a double off the top of the left field wall. St. Germain thentook a 1-0 pitch and lined it over the left field fence, giving Lutcher a 3-0 lead.

Lee Poche kept the inning alive with a single to right. Dustin Deslatte followedwith a single to center and Terry Millet followed with one off the top of the wall in right-center, scoring Poche to make it 4-0. Chris Cancienne came in toreplace Braud on the mound and got Ben Martin on a ground out to end the inning.

St. Charles Catholic got on the board in the bottom half of the inning. MikeMustian led off by drawing a walk from Ursin. One out later, Nick Monicawalked and both runners moved up on Toby Jacob’s ground out to first.

Braud followed with a grounder up the middle. Haydel went into the hole tomake a sliding grab but had no play as Mustian came in to make it 4-1. Ursingot out of further trouble by striking out Jason LaPorte to end the inning.

Lutcher added two runs in the top of the second as Rusty Crosslin led off with a double to left and Bo Louque followed with a single to shallow right field. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch with Crosslin scoring on anotherwild pitch to make it 5-1. One out later, Ursin lined a single to left, scoringLouque to increase the lead to 6-1. Jacob came in to pitch and got St.Germain and Poche to end the inning.

St. Charles Catholic came right back with a run in the bottom of the inning.With one out, Jason Rauch walked and went to third as Ursin’s pick off throw went into right field. Rauch then came in as a balk was called on Ursin,cutting the Bulldogs’ lead to 6-2.

Lutcher answered with a six-run third inning. Deslatte opened the inning bybeating out a grounder along the third baseline. After courtesy runner ScottOcmond moved up on a wild pitch, Millet walked and Martin sacrificed both runners along. Crosslin followed with a double off the center field wall, drivingin Ocmond and Millet and giving Lutcher an 8-2 lead.

Jacob struck out Louque but hit Haydel with a pitch. Haydel stole second andUrsin walked to load the bases. St. Germain then delivered the big blow of theinning, taking a 2-1 pitch over the wall in left-center for a grand slam, increasing the Bulldogs’ lead to 12-2.

“I came out feeling ready to play,” St. Germain said. “We did what we had todo to put the bat on the ball. We had been getting people on base and comingup with the big hit. Today it was see the ball and hit the ball for everybody.” Deslatte added a lead-off home run to right field to lead off the fourth. Milletfollowed with a walk and Martin singled to right before Michael Bonura came in to pitch. Crosslin then hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Millet to make it14-2.

Poche led off the fifth with a triple. After Deslatte walked, Poche scored asMillet grounded into a double play, increasing Lutcher’s lead to 15-2.

“They took us out of the game early with their offense,” St. Charles Catholiccoach Frank Monica said. “They took advantage of us having a tired staff andripped us. We used three pitchers every game this week and just ran out ofgas. But you have to give them credit. Their offense was really good. Itwasn’t so much what we did but what they did.” Ursin pitched into the fourth inning before being replaced with one out after walking LaPorte and Rauch. Matt Roussel came in and got Andrew Revall tohit into a force out and Justin Chauvin to fly out to right. Roussel walkedMatt Boucvalt and gave up a single to Anthony Jacob in the fifth before retiring the final two hitters to end the game.

Ursin gave up two hits while walking six and striking out three in improving to 5-0 on the season.

“He got into some tough situations and was able to get out of them,” Tribble said of Ursin. “We still have a long way to go. This doesn’t mean anything tillwe finish the job. We have to keep playing.”

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