By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — West St. John hoped for a better finish to its regular season, but the Rams and coach Brandon Dumas still hoped to make their third consecutive trip to the softball playoffs.

West St. John was to find out its fate on Friday morning, after publication presstime.

The Rams ended the season on a three-game slide, falling twice to host Bethany Christian in a Thursday doubleheader, 10-8 and 13-4, and Tuesday to Central Catholic, 16-1.

All were non-district contests. WSJ finished District 8-1A play 6-6, in fourth place.

The toughest of the three losses came in the Rams’ final game, in which it led Bethany Christian 1-0 entering the fifth and final inning. There, Bethany piled up 13 runs to take control.

“We picked up our defense from the first game and played four clean innings. Three up, three down,” said Dumas. “But in the fifth inning, we lost our focus. One error became two, then three. It snowballed.”

The Rams battled back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs, but it wasn’t enough.

“I was proud that they didn’t go up there and quit. After that, it would have been easy to just strike out three times,” said Dumas.

Ormoni Favorite went 2-for-2 with an RBI and two steals for the Rams

Brittany Tuco went 2-for-3 with a steal.

Tuco’s RBI single in the fourth inning gave WSJ a 1-0 lead.

The two teams were tied at 4 entering the bottom of the third, but Bethany piled up six runs in the next two innings to go up 10-4.

West St. John rallied to score three in the top of the fifth but fell short.

Taj Howard went 2-for-3 with two RBIs for WSJ. Favorite was 2-for-3 with an RBI.