By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Last season was the first time that the River Region saw two local teams advance to the American Legion state tournament.
St. Charles Catholic-based Townsend Homes and Hahnville High School-based Otto Candies will each attempt to make recent history repeat itself, starting Saturday as the American Legion Southeast Regional gets started at Delgado’s Kirsch-Rooney Stadium in New Orleans. Townsend Homes is set to face the John Curtis-based Patriots, while Otto Candies will tangle with Shaw.
Four of the tournament’s eight teams will advance to the state level after competing in the double-elimination regional competition. The goal, essentially, is to win two games before losing two – that will be enough to propel a team to the state tournament in Sulphur. The Southeast Regional will run from Saturday to Wednesday.
The tournament includes Refuel (Shaw),  Peake BMW (Brother Martin), and Gauthier-Amadee (consisting of players from St. Amant, Dutchtown and East Ascension).
For Townsend Homes, a trip to state would be its first ever, and coach Wayne Stein hopes that will be plenty enough motivation to spur his players on.
Townsend enters the tournament hot, winners of five of its last six games after beginning the summer 3-6-1. Those five wins include two over Shell Motiva (Destrehan) and others over Holy Cross, Lutcher and Rummel-based teams.
“The way the summer usually goes is, when the kids are ready for it to be over, it will be,” said Stein. “And that’s understandable. They’re stretched really thin right now, with 7-on-7’s, with basketball. They’re putting a lot of time in.
“But we’re playing really well right now, maybe as well as anyone. We’ve been playing our best over the last couple of weeks. I’d love for us to go up there and play well and make that push to state. But regardless, this has been a great summer for us.”
Austin Weber is leading Townsend Homes offensively, batting .379 from the 3-hole. Connor Smith has also provided a boost with his bat, hitting .344. Kameron Keller and Mason Bordelon are each hitting .280.
On the mound, B.J. Waguespack leads the team in ERA with a 1.37 mark over 17 innings. Mason Bordelon sports a 2.25 ERA over 32 innings. Those two, along with Smith and Weber, lead a Townsend pitching staff that has shown itself to be rich in talent. That will come in handy now that all games are nine innings long.
“I don’t know that we’ll have the best pitcher at this tournament by any means, but we’ve got a really good variety of guys that I know I can count on. Nine inning games can be an adventure, but we’ve got a few guys to go to when needed,” said Stein.
First thing’s first though: winning that initial game.
“You always want to win that first one,” said Stein. “That’s our focus. But at the same time, you have to play it smart. If you see yourself fading, you choose your battles as far as who you call upon on the mound. But with nine innings, you also don’t want to throw in the towel on anything early, because anything can happen. It’s a balancing act.”
Otto Candies, meanwhile, made a spectacular run last summer, advancing through the Southeast Regional and finishing as Legion state runner-up before finally bowing out in the Mid-South regional. That was the furthest any Hahnville-based Legion team had ever advanced.
The names are familiar this season. Only Travis Faucheux and Mike Ford are departed from last season’s group, making this a very experienced and tournament ready team.
Like Townsend Homes, Otto Candies (21-7) is built upon a base of strong pitching and defense.
“That’s the strength of the team,” said Otto Candies coach David Baudry, who once guided Rummel to a national Legion championship. “We’ve got 10 to 11 guys I’m comfortable with on the mound. It’ll start with Brooks (Vial) and Tyler (Lamers), and I’m not sure which order they’ll go in. After that, we’ll throw the guy who we feel can best handle those expectations and knows how to perform in the pressure of the situation.”
 Lamers, Cody Farrell and Todd Porche have led Otto Candies offensively this summer.
Baudry said that he’s pleased with where his team is to this point, but noted that offensive production has been inconsistent at times this season. That’s the one area he said he felt his team could stand improvement in, but noted that things have already begun to turn for the better in that area over the past couple of weeks.
“We’ve made a lot of strides there over the second half of the season,” he said.