By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Ciere Poche and Destani Comminie each had big days at the plate as West St. John defeated St. James for the second time this season, winning 11-8 at St. James on Thursday.

Poche was 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBIs. Comminie was 4-for-5 with two RBIs.

Comminie (2-1) notched her second win of the year, pitching all seven innings.

“We played well in spots,” said West St. John Coach Brandon Dumas. “We made a couple of errors, and St. James played a little better than they did in the last game. This was a real tight game the whole way.”

In the last meeting between the teams, at West St. John, the Rams (2-1) broke a 4-4 tie in the second inning and went on to win 15-4.

This time, St. James established a 3-2 lead after an inning, and never went away. The Rams would briefly take a 4-3 lead in the third, but St. James (0-4) would score twice in the bottom half of the inning to go back on top.

But three West St. John runs in the fifth gave the Rams breathing room. Two more in the sixth made it 9-5.

The Wildcats would score one in the sixth, but the Rams answered in the seventh with two more, generated by RBI singles by Tranell Mitchell and Kyla Morris.

 Leading 11-6, West St. John saw St. James score two more runs to draw within three, but it ended there.

Dumas said that his team responded in the appropriate way after a lopsided loss to E.D. White only days earlier.

“I thought we ran the bases better, and we were able to hit the ball to the outfield for extra base hits,” said Dumas. “We had a triple, and two or three doubles. This time around, that made a difference.”