By Ryan Arena
L’Observateur

RESERVE — The East St. John-based Wildcat Baseball team began summer play with a trio of losses to Rummel and St. Amant — the latter prevailing twice in one-run games — this week.

But the Wildcats collected their first win Wednesday over an inter-parish foe in West St. John-based Ram Baseball, winning 19-2 in five innings by the 10-run rule.

It was the first game of the summer for the Rams (0-1).

Andre Simmons allowed no earned runs over three innings and earned the victory for the Wildcats (1-3). He struck out five.

“We’re trying to develop him as a pitcher,” said Wildcats coach Ryan Sims. “Hopefully he can help us this upcoming prep season. He and Richard DiMaggio pitched real well today.”

Said Simmons: “I was getting ahead of batters, staying consistently in the strike zone. Aside from that, I made a good pitch when I needed to.”

The Wildcats took advantage of some Ram errors in the field to build an early lead and seize the momentum, including a first inning that saw them score five runs on two hits, two walks, a hit batter and three errors.

Simmons and Bryton Trepagnier each reached to lead off the game. After stealing second and reaching third on a Trepagnier single, Simmons scored on a passed ball. Shane Nicholson singled and Ashton Lewis drove in Trepagnier on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. A passed ball and two errors led to three more runs crossing.

Trepagnier scored his second run on a second inning passed ball, after stealing two bases.

The Rams answered by scoring their first run in the third when Kenneth Taylor drilled a single to center field to bring in Damon Pierce.

The Wildcats tacked on three more in the third. DeAntre Richardson singled and later scored on an error. Simmons drove in another run on a triple before scoring on the play due to an error.

The Rams added a run in the fourth on Quad Howard’s single to center, which scored Quincy Green. But DiMaggio would hold them scoreless the rest of the way.

“We’re trying to show teams (this summer) that we’re ready, and that we can play with them,” DiMaggio said.

It was a rebound performance for Wildcat Baseball, which dropped a doubleheader to St. Amant by scores of 8-7 and 9-8, and fell to Rummel, 13-6, in games contested earlier this week.

“We’ve got a lot of new kids picking up different aspects of the game. But I think we’re doing a good job right now,” said Sims. “We’re just trying to get better.