By RYAN ARENA

Sports editor

On Monday, East St. John showed it was capable of playing spoiler in the District 6-5A race when it shook off a late comeback to defeat Destrehan at home.

On Thursday, the Wildcats showed they just might be relishing that role.

This time, the victims were the rival Hahnville Tigers, who traveled to Reserve and fell 11-7 in a District 6-5A game. in the process losing sole possession of second place in the district race.

Josh Brown was 3-for-4 with a grand slam and five RBIs to key the Wildcats win at the plate.

And Brown sounds as if he enjoys that role of spoiler.

“We’re not going to the playoffs,” Brown said. “So we want to make it hard for someone else to.”

Said Hahnville Coach Kade Rogers: “They played harder and better than we did. They fought for it, they wanted it more. And they got it.”

Brighton Trepagnier (2-3) earned the win. He allowed six earned runs on six hits, while striking out three. He went five innings before being relieved by Lionel Weston, who closed out the game.

Hahnville (20-11-1, 7-5) dropped into a tie in the loss column with Destrehan and Dutchtown. All three teams were ahead of St. Amant (19-12-1, 5-6), but trailing first place East Ascension (23-9. 8-4).

It was apparent early that East St. John (10-13-1, 2-10) was capable of further muddying up the playoff waters. After Hahnville took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning, the Wildcat offense went to work.

I’Keem Brown tied the game with a solo home run. Corwin Brown and Kendrick Sentimore each reached, and Justin Howard drove in the go-ahead run on a single.

Shortly after, with the bases loaded, Donald Goff drew a walk to bring in ESJ’s fourth run. Josh Brown singled to plate the fifth and final run in the second inning for the Wildcats.

    East St. John added another run in the third inning to make it 7-1. Then, in the fourth, Josh Brown’s grand slam gave East St. John a commanding 11-2 lead. 

    Hahnville attempted to rally, starting in the fifth inning, when a bases loaded walk by Jordan Unger and a two-run double by Dillon Boudreaux made it 11-5. A sixth-inning solo home-run by Colby Broussard and an RBI single by Ryan Waters cut it to 11-7.

    But Weston retired the final five Tiger batters of the game to end the Tiger rally.

    ESJ’s Kendrick Sentimore was 2-for-4 with two RBis. Howard also had two RBIs. Corwin Brown went 3-for-4.

    A major key to the win was a strong defensive effort by the Wildcats, who committed only one error in the game after struggling in that department for much of the season.

    For East St. John Coach Ryan Sims, it was a sight he expected much more of at the beginning of district play.

    “This is the team I thought we had at the beginning of the year,” Sims said. “We were playing tight, now we’re relaxed. Hahnville has a good team. I thought we’d be a good team. We just took too long to get going.”

    Brown agreed.

    “We’re just having fun now,” he said.

    Destrehan 9, East St. John 3 – Destrehan and East St. John rematched on Tuesday in Destrehan after ESJ’s win on Monday. DHS got the better of this matchup, winning 9-3.

    Destrehan (19-12, 7-5) led 3-2 entering the fifth, and extended that lead to 5-3 before a four-run sixth inning proved too much for ESJ to overcome.

    Josh Brown (0-3) pitched his first game after a layoff due to shoulder stiffness. He went five innings and allowed five runs on eight hits. He struck out two.