By ROBERT L. LEE

LAPLACE – “It was a slug fest,” said Cretin Homes Comets’ coach Paul Waguespack of Friday’s cross-town battle versus the East St. Charles Post 366/195 Fighting Wildcats.

“There were 24 hits in the first four and a third innings. Then I brought in Matt Heltz, he shut them down.”

The Comets totalled 11 hits, but pulled out two runs more than the Fighting Wildcats, which batted 14 hits, only to fall 12-10.

“For me and a couple of kids it means something to win over them. We wanted it,” said Waguespack.

East St. Charles’ coach Marty Luquet offered only that their abundance of hits simply did not come at the right times to bring home the runs.

“We got 14 hits, but we couldn’t get them in clutch situations. They (Comets) jumped in front and we just couldn’t catch up,” explained Luquet.

This was a practice game, it was non-district, but we wouldn’t say let them win. We tried to win, we could never get the big hits to tie the game.”

The meeting was the second time the teams have met during legion baseball and evened the teams’ records at 1-1 for the summer. The loss against the Comets fell in the middle of “a three-game skid” the East St. Charles team had slipped into.

The first loss came in Lutcher, while the third came at the hands of Rummel’s Schaff Brothers legion team Saturday.

“We played pretty good against Rummel,” said Luquet.

“All day we had long hits and hard line drives. During the regular season we hit balls hard and they find a way through, now they’re just catching them.

We’ve just got to be patient and let things happen.”

Waguespack admitted his team didn’t exactly have an easy victory over the Fighting Wildcats, but they put together enough of an effort to secure the win.

“Like I said before, replacing seven starters, it’s tough, but we happened to come out on top again. That’s what summer is all about. Hopefully we’ll be ready for prep,” he said.

On the other end of the River Parishes, the Golden Grove Truck Plaza Bulldogs were tearing into Reserve Post 159’s Wildcats.

When the mauling was finished and the seventh inning in the books, the Bulldogs left the field with a 14-1 district win.

“They (Wildcats) walked quite a few people, but even after they would walk us, we would come back with big hits,” explained Bulldogs’ assistant coach Chad Goulas.

“We took advantage of our opportunities and made them pay for their mistakes.”

The Bulldogs had their moments of mistakes, totalling five errors, but their responses kept them on track for the win.

“Usually we have a sound defense,” Goulas continued.

“We made some mistakes but they were unable to take advantage of them against us.”