By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE — Riverside came away with a pair of signature victories over the past week, one in District 10-2A play.

The Rebels defeated host John Curtis, 4-1, on Thursday, then captured a 4-3 victory at home over Destrehan.

Grady Gieger made Sunday’s victory official with his walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning, breaking a 3-3 tie.

“He’s been doing it at the plate all year long,” said Riverside coach Matt White of Gieger.

Ryan Broussard notched the win after coming on in relief of starter Tate Scioneaux in the seventh inning. Broussard pitched a scoreless seventh.

Gieger went 2-for-4 and Evan Veron went 2-for-3 for Riverside.

The Rebels went ahead 2-0 in the first inning and then 3-0 after two, but Destrehan caught fire in the fourth and pushed three runs across.

“They pounded out four hits in a row and all of a sudden you’re feeling like, ‘Uh oh, here comes Destrehan,’” said White.

Scioneaux finished with seven strikeouts in six innings.

Then came Gieger’s heroics.

“He’s hitting .500 this year, and his hits aren’t usually cheap,” White said. “It was the perfect guy for us to come up in the perfect situation.”

The win over Curtis snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Patriots.

Riverside jumped ahead of Curtis in the first inning, drawing five walks and scoring two runs.

Tanner Lawson was able to hold the advantage on the mound for Riverside, going the first four innings and allowing one run on four hits. He struck out three, and gave way to Scioneaux in the fifth inning with a 3-1 lead; the Patriots, meanwhile, were stabilized by the pitching of Matthew Grabert, who entered early in relief. He finished the game with 10 strikeouts and six hits allowed over 6.1 innings.

But from his entry into the game, the Rebel ace dominated. Scioneaux faced nine batters and struck out eight of them, allowing no hits or walks; the only Curtis baserunner in the final three innings reached on an error.

“The plan was to see how far Tanner could go, and get Tate up there with a pitchcount of about 30-35. He finished with 35 pitches and threw 27 of them for strikes,” said White. “It was a huge effort against a red-hot Curtis team.”

Gieger finished the game as the leading hitter, going 3-for-3 with a walk. Deuce Wallace was 1-for-1 with two RBIs and Dustin Madere was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Scioneaux scored two runs.

White said that his team was more than motivated entering the game.

“Everytime I looked, Curtis had won again. They were on absolute fire,” said White. “Our guys saw the thing on the news, talking about how Curtis won in basketball and football, and how they can win it all in all three sports for the first time. Our kids got pretty fired up and it made for a great atmosphere that day.”