MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / June 10, 2000

RESERVE – With games against Destrehan Thursday and Jesuit Friday, Lutcher Bulldogs coach Scott Tribble put starting pitcher Matt Roussel on a 50-pitch count Tuesday afternoon against Riverside’s Metro League team.

Roussel made the most of those 50 pitches, throwing five innings of one- hit ball to help the Bulldogs to a 7-3 victory at Fernandez Field.

The Bulldogs improved to 3-1 on the season with the win.

“Matt did a great job,” Tribble said. “He threw his curve ball where hewanted and he threw his fastball to his spots. He was a pitcher today.”Lutcher got on the scoreboard in the first inning against Riverside starter Bradley Hodges. With two outs, Dustin Deslatte beat out a grounder toshort and Risley St. Germain followed with a line-drive home run to leftfield, making it 2-0.

Keith Hymel tripled to right field with one out in the third inning and scored on a passed ball to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. Chris Guidryhomered to left after St. Germain was hit by a pitch to lead off the fourth,increasing the lead to 5-0. Cory Bourgeois singled to right-center withtwo outs in the fifth, stole second and scored as Deslatte reached on an error at short for a 6-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Roussel was retiring the first 13 batters he faced before Jared St. Amant reached on an error at third with one out in the fifth.After St. Amant went to third on two wild pitches, T.J. Cancience lined anRBI single to right to make it 6-1. Roussel came out after that inningafter allowing one hit while striking out five.

Riverside pulled to within 6-2 in the sixth against reliever T.J. Bourgeois.After Bourgeois struck out the first two batters of the inning, Joel Levin singled to center. Levin went to second on an errant pickoff throw andreached third on a wild pitch. Seth Johnson followed with a single tocenter to score the run. Bourgeois prevented further trouble by gettingScott Poirrier to fly out to center for the third out.

Lutcher got that run back in the seventh against Levin who had replaced Hodges at the beginning of the sixth inning. Joey Zimmer opened the inningwith a double to right-center and went to third as Rondell Joseph beat out a single to second. Cory Bourgeois followed with a single between shortand third, bringing in Zimmer for a 7-2 lead.

St. Amant walked and Chris Reeves reached on an error with one out in thebottom half of the inning. One out later, after both runners moved up on awild pitch, Dexter Falgoust walked and Jared Ocmond was hit by a pitch to drive in St. Amant. With the tying run at the plate, Bourgeois struck outLevin to end the game.

“We got home runs by Riz and Chris and we had a few guys step up at the plate,” Tribble said. “We need to improve on the little things. We’ve gotfreshman and sophomores out there who need to do this day in and day out so it becomes natural for them. We have a lot of player who haven’t playedvarsity baseball. They need to become consistent and get experience.”

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher