By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

Riverside baseball Coach Britt Waguespack knew what his team was up against in its season opener at St. Amant on Monday.

The Gators are coming off a season where it fell in the Class 5A state semifinals, 8-6, to eventual champion Jesuit. They enter this season with high hopes.

And those high hopes were reinforced with a strong start, a 16-3 win in five innings by the 10-run rule over the visiting Rebels.

“I knew what we were getting into,” Waguespack said. “We made some mistakes early. We walked 10 guys in five innings, and you can’t win like that.”

Included in those mistakes were four Riverside (0-1) errors. Those, coupled with the 10 walks Waguespack spoke of and nine St. Amant hits were the recipe for a 16 run afternoon.

The Gators (1-0) started fast, scoring six run in the bottom of the first inning. They’d score three in each of the second and third innings to take a 12-0 advantage.

“We dug ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole,” Waguespack said. “We continually made mental mistakes, and you can’t do that against a team like St. Amant. It gets you beat.”

Jade Falgoust’s lead off home run in the fourth inning got Riverside on the board.

St. Amant answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring its final four runs. Riverside scored twice at the top of the fifth, after Wade Delaneuville’s in field single scored Colby Vicknair, and Jake Roussel followed with an RBI single of his own.

But those runs weren’t enough to extend the game.

William DeSlatte (1-0) was the winning pitcher for St. Amant.

Falgoust (0-1) took the loss on the mound for the Rebels.

Riverside ended with three hits.

The news was better for the Rebels over the weekend. Riverside hosted Ridgewood and Hannan for its jamboree on Saturday. The Rebels flexed their hitting muscle, defeating Ridgewood 13-0 and Hannan 25-1 in two exhibition games.

“Everything went well for us on Saturday. Nothing went well today,” said Waguespack. “That’s the way the game is played, sometimes.”