East St. John scores seven in seventh for victory

BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

ELLENDER-If they field their positions well, East St. John has the hitters and the pitchers to be one of the most dangerous teammates throughout Class 5A.

But right now that’s a big “IF.”

A tie game heading into the seventh inning, the Wildcat bats erupted for seven runs as East St. John came back to defeat Ellender, 12-6 Thursday afternoon on the road.

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 11-10 on the season and 3-3 in district 6-5A.

The three-headed monster of Ryan Perrilloux, Travon Lilly and Greg Sentimore provided the offensive punch for East St. John.

Sentimore finished the game 3-4 with a run driven while Lilly was 2-5 with a homerun and a pair of runs driven in.

Perrilloux was the big hitter of the day for the Wildcats, going 3-4 with three runs driven in.

While the trio of Perrilloux, Lilly and Sentimore were providing the offense for East St. John, senior Jamal Breaux had a very solid relief performance on the mound.

Coming in very early after his team fell behind 2-0, Breaux went on to only give up two earned runs in six innings of work. He also struck out three and walked only two.

Wildcats Head Coach Macky Waguespack was happy that his team was able to come away with the victory.

“It’s always nice to get a comeback victory,” Waguespack said. “Your tied up 5-5 going into the seventh inning and your offense kind of explodes to score seven runs. We were able to put seven big hits in a row together and put ourselves in a position to win.”

Waguespack said his team’s achilles heel continues to be their ability to field the ball.

“Pretty much,” Waguespack said. “But early on we made a couple errors and you cannot do that against a team like Ellender. They are a much improved team from last year.

“The put the pressure on us early, but we were able to kick it up when it mattered the most, kept it close, battled back and then had our big inning.”

He was happy with Breaux’s performance on the mound.

“He came in as a relief pitcher for our starter who gave up a couple of early runs,” Waguespack said. “I brought Jamal to the mound in the second inning and he pitched well.

“He gave up two late runs thanks to errors, but if we field okay we are better and we were not able to do that early on.”

Waguespack also was happy with his trio’s power performance at the plate.

“At the time it was 7-5 and then Ryan went yard to make it 9-5,” Waguespack said. “Then Lilly hit the very next pitch out of the ballpark. We really hit the ball well.”

The inability to field the ball cleanly is really the only thing that continues to worry the Wildcats Head Coach.

“Definitely,” Waguespack said. “I’m confident in everything else. We are pitching good and when you are doing that you have to be able to field it. Right now that is a big concern for us.”