By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – After his team’s 3-0 victory over East St. John in the first round of district play on April 4, Hahnville coach David Baudry decided he needed to see a change in his team’s offensive approach.

But on Tuesday, Hahnville brought the complete package to Reserve, as the Tigers notched a 14-1 victory over East St. John to remain undefeated in District 8-5A. The game ended after six innings because of the 10-run rule.

“The big key, to me, was that in the first East St. John game, I felt we were very passive at the plate,” said Baudry. “You saw much more aggressive swings today and a better approach.”

The Tigers racked up 16 hits on the day. A five-run fifth inning gave Hahnville a 7-0 lead and put East St. John back on its heels for the rest of the contest. That inning was highlighted by a two-run single by  Dylan Keller, an RBI double by Connor Lorio and a towering two-run home run by Tyler Simmons.

Since the first ESJ game, Hahnville has scored 46 runs over their last five contests going 5-0 over that span.

Simmons led the way for Hahnville (22-7, 7-0) with a strong all around effort. He went 2 for 4 at the plate with a home run, a double and four RBIs. He also flashed a strong glove at shortstop, robbing the Wildcats of hits on two impressive plays in the first three innings.

“I wanted to set the example early today,” said Simmons.

Coming off of a four-game District 8-5A stretch that saw East St. John (11-13, 2-4) notch two victories and push state powers Hahnville and Destrehan in losses, the Wildcats hoped Tuesday’s game would have yielded a far better result.

“We’ve had it on our minds to make a push,” said East St. John senior third baseman Daniel Franklin. “We just weren’t as focused today as we needed to be.”

Part of that may have been frustration; the Wildcats collected seven hits and hit a number of other balls hard, but an airtight Hahnville defense was on point all day.

ESJ leadoff man Phil Adams lined a hard shot that was caught by third baseman Kyle Plaisance in the Wildcats’ first at-bat, and it set the tone.

HHS went on to turn two double plays  – one on a line drive – and Tigers’ catcher Lorio threw out two baserunners on steal attempts.  

“That kills innings,” said Williams.

Lamers (7-1) pitched the complete six-inning game, allowing  one earned run on seven hits.

Keller went 2 for 4 with two RBIs for Hahnville. Michael Landry went 2 for 3 with an RBI.

Darnell Lee singled home ESJ’s lone run in the third inning, scoring Parrish Williams. Williams went 2 for 2. Ahmani Martin and Bruce Winn each went 2 for 3.

Lee took the loss on the mound for ESJ.

EAST ST. JOHN 4, JOHN EHRET 2 – ESJ secured its second straight win last weekend with a victory over Ehret, led by a sterling pitching outing by Daniel Franklin.

Franklin struck out 10 batters while tossing a complete game two-hitter. He walked one and gave Ehret little chance to mount any kind of a comeback.

“I’ve been training really hard with my pitching coach and doing a lot of conditioning work to finish these games strong,” said Franklin. “My defense was making plays for me, so I knew they had my back. You always pitch better when you’ve got that in the back of your mind.”

Said Williams, “Every time we put him out there, I feel like we’ll win,” said Williams. “He just moved his ERA under 2. “When he’s rolling, we feel like we have a chance to beat anyone out there.”

Phil Adams had a big day at the plate, going 4 for 4 with two RBIs. Winn also collected two RBIs to go along with two hits. Franklin finished with two hits of his own.