By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – Shortly after East St. John’s one-sided 17-2 victory over district foe Higgins Thursday,  Wildcats assistant coach Johnny Owen had a bit of a surprise for his team – former New York Yankee outfielder and ESJ alum Gerald Williams was in attendance, and he spoke some words of encouragement to the Wildcat players.

He saw some encouraging things on the field as well.

“Even though they were winning all game, you wouldn’t have known it by their effort level,” said Williams. “They never let up at all.”

East St. John certainly earned its first district win in dominating fashion, batting around in two of the four innings the Wildcats went to bat. The Wildcats wasted no time, scoring nine runs and sending 14 batters to the plate in the first inning, then batted around again in the fourth.

“We learned from experience that you can’t relax. Against Curtis, we led 7-0 and go on to lose 17-7,” said ESJ coach Curtis Tsuruda. “You can’t take your foot off the gas.”

Ashton Lewis went 3-for-3 with a pair of RBIs to help lead the Wildcats (9-14, 1-3). He reached base in all four of his plate appearances. Phil Adams was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Ahmani Martin was 2-for-3 with a double and a triple.

“Our mindset was that we just had to put runs up,” said Lewis. “We’ve been struggling a little, so we’ve been taking extra swings and putting the work in … We’ve never been bad at hitting, but we needed to focus a little more.

“After a few losses, we needed this to lift our spirits.”

Lewis also had a strong day on the mound, going all five innings and earning the win. He allowed two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out seven. He got stronger as the game went on, allowing just one Hurricanes base runner in the final three innings.

Higgins (10-13, 0-4) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a Josh Boudreaux RBI single. Eric Gordon and Russell Prejeant had walked and singled respectively to set up the run.

But ESJ answered quickly and loudly when it came up to bat.

With one out, the Wildcats got a trio of consecutive singles from Adams, Lewis and Daniel Franklin. Franklin collected an RBI when he rocked a shot into left, tying the game. But he’d keep running as Higgins misplayed the ball; he’d come all the way around and all three base runners would score to make it 3-1.

“We haven’t been stringing together hits lately,” said Tsuruda. “Today we were able to change that.”

Bruce Winn and Martin drew walks, setting up an I’Kee Brown RBI single to center to make it 4-1. Diontra Rixner came up with an infield single to push home another run, then ESJ went ahead 6-1 on a sharply hit ball by Darnell Lee that went through the legs of Higgins third baseman Kyle Rayes.

Rixner scored from third on a passed ball to make it 7-1, then Adams walked. Lewis punched through his second single up the middle of the inning and that scored two runs to make it 9-1.

Higgins added another run in the top of the second on Eric Gordon’s RBI single, but the Hurricanes would not score again.

Lee collected an RBI single in the second to make it 10-2. A two RBI single by Adams in the fourth made it 12-2. ESJ would score another on a Winn RBI triple and four more in the inning on Higgins errors.

The Wildcats, conversely, did not commit an error in the field. That was a delight for Tsuruda to see, after ESJ committed seven in a loss to Destrehan Tuesday.

“We played error-free ball. It’s been a matter of going back to basics,” said Tsuruda.

Lewis said it was by design.

“We were focused in practice on improving there,” he said. “We kept fielding ground balls. In the past, we’ve had problems with that.”

It’s been a year of runs for the Wildcats, both good and bad, and the hope in Reserve Thursday was that the Higgins win would be the start of another.

“We’re working a lot on executing in specific game situations,” said Adams. “That’s been a focus. And when they come up in live games, you just hope that you’ve made it second nature.”