By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Down by one, and aced with the prospect of another hard-luck loss, West St. John pitcher Karl Herbert stepped to the plate in the seventh inning determined to do something about it.

With one swing of the bat, he did.

Herbert’s solo home run tied the score at 9-9 with White Castle. Brad Robertson would put his team ahead shortly after with the eventual go-ahead RBI single as West St. John defeated the visiting Bulldogs 10-9 in a District 9-1A game on Thursday.

West St. John held an early 6-2 lead, but White Castle erased almost all of it by the sixth inning partially due to a number of Ram miscues.

But that only served to set the table for the heroics of Herbert and Robertson.

“The fourth and fifth inning have been real trouble for us this year,” said West St. John Coach Lennix Madere. “We get out to a lead, and it’s like we try to give it away. But we were able to hold on and get a win, this time.”

The win allowed West St. John to finish in a tie for second place in 9-1A with White Castle, who it split with this season.

The Rams, their regular season now finished, await their playoff seeding, which will be determined next week.

On the mound, Herbert struck out seven batters on his way to the win. At the plate, he finished 2-for-2.

Romell Howard was 1-for-3 with two RBis, and Barry Hanson was 1-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Rams scored five runs in the third inning to take a 6-2 lead. White Castle narrowed that down to 8-6 entering the top of the seventh, where the Bulldogs scored three runs to take a 9-8 lead.

Ascension Catholic 10, West St. John 0 – Ascension Catholic pitching held the Rams to two runs and two walks as it defeated the visiting Rams 10-0 in five innings by the 10-run rule.

Dray Joseph (0-1) took the loss for the Rams, after giving up five earned runs in his first start of the season.

“He did a good job,” said Madere. “If we get a few hits early, and back him up with some solid defensive plays, we might have had a tight game.”

Kenneth Dabney and Barry Hanson collected the two hits for WSJ.     

Ascension Catholic led 4-0 after four innings, and scored six in the fifth to close the game out.