By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Playing in their final regular season game, and with no postseason trip in the cards, the East St. John Ladycats had nothing to lose as they took the field against East Ascension.

By contrast, while the Spartans had locked up a playoff position, they were still jousting for second place with Dutchtown, which it had split with during the season. All it had to do to clinch at least a tie for second was secure a win on Tuesday at home.

The Ladycats weren’t interested in making things easy on them.

ESJ’s Stacy Sutton and EA’s Rachel LeCoq dueled for five scoreless innings, and it became apparent that it could be a game where it was “one run and done.”

In the bottom of the sixth, it was the Spartans who delivered. They notched three consecutive singles to begin the inning, the last an RBI that led to a 1-0 Spartans win.

Sutton (5-10) went the distance for the Ladycats (12-17-0, 2-8), allowing four hits and two walks in seven innings. Sutton struck out six batters.

LeCoq did her part for East Ascension (27-8-2) by limiting Ladycat batters to two hits for the game.

Seymone McKinney and Lacy Sutton tallied the hits for the Wildcats as each singled.