Hot bats guide St. Amant past Wildcats

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 8, 2008

By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

The East St. John Wildcats are looking for a way to right the ship as they approach the midpoint of district play. But the waters of District 6-5A are as treacherous as ever.

The Wildcats fell to St. Amant twice last week, falling 15-2 at home on Thursday and 9-3 at St. Amant on Saturday.

The wins place the Gators (18-9-1, 4-3) in third place behind East Ascension and Hahnville, but without much breathing room – both Destrehan and Dutchtown are a mere game behind.

For East St. John (8-10-1, 0-7), it’s been a struggle since the district opener on Mar. 20, when the Wildcats entered with a record of 8-2-1.

“It’s getting pretty frustrating,” said East St. John Coach Ryan Sims. “We’re just learning from it and getting better. Slowly, but we will get better.”

On Thursday, St. Amant did their damage in the third (four runs), fourth (six runs), and sixth (five runs) innings.

East St. John scored it’s two runs in the bottom of the fourth, when LaBaron Sylvester notched an RBI double, followed by an RBI groundout by Brandon Trant.

Trant (1-1) started the game, and took his first loss of the season.

In the Saturday game, the Wildcats trailed 2-1 in the fourth inning before St. Amant pulled away. The Gators led 5-1 entering the fifth, and 6-1 entering the sixth.

East St. John would cut the lead to 6-3 in the top of the sixth, but St. Amant scored three in the bottom half of the inning.

Corwin Brown scored two runs, while I’Keem Brown  scored one.

Lionel Weston took the loss, dropping to 1-3 on the year.