By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — It’s exceptionally rare that Riverside is tasked with breaking a four-game losing streak, but that’s exactly what Dominican was attempting to keep the Rebels from doing on a chilly, windy Thursday night. 

But the Rebels’ big bats propelled Riverside to an 8-4 victory in Reserve in a contest that Riverside led from the first inning on. 

Toni Perrin hit a home run and tripled in the game while Madison Watson collected a game-high four RBIs to lead the Rebels. 

“We were really ready for this game,” said Perrin, a leftfielder who has cracked the Rebels lineup as an 8th grader. “We had a big talk after our loss yesterday (to Mount Carmel) and we knew we needed to come out and put it together.”

Said Riverside coach Kristy Hebert, “We lost one yesterday that we felt we shouldn’t have. We talked and challenged our older kids to step up. We need them to produce and today I thought a lot of people really stepped up.”

Cheyenne Triche went the complete game to earn the win, allowing four runs on seven hits and four walks. She struck out three. 

The Rebels (2-4) led late in three of their four losses before allowing their opponent to rally and win, and Dominican (1-2) threatened in the top of the seventh to continue that run. After Tracy Samanie walked to lead off the frame, the top of the Dominican order was up, trailing 8-3. Brooke Vosloh reached on a dropped fly ball to give her team two on with no outs. 

Cameron Angelo lined out to center and Claire Taix hit a sacrifice fly to plate a run before Kaitlyn Duncan laced a ball into centerfield that looked probable to do some damage. But centerfielder Caitlin Roussel made a diving catch to end the game and seal the Riverside win.

It was Roussel’s second big defensive play of the night, after a strong throw to Triche resulted in a relay throw and tag at the plate by Toni Hebert that cost Dominican a run and ended the fourth inning. 

“Cookie (Roussel) really made some exceptional plays tonight,” said Kristy Hebert. 

Watson put Riverside ahead 1-0 in the first inning on a two-out RBI single that scored Peyton Sutton, who reached on an error.

Perrin put another two-out run on the board in the second inning via her home run blast, her solo shot clearing the right field wall and making it 2-0.

“That was the first one for me that cleared the fence,” said Perrin. “It felt awesome.”

Dominican got one back in the third inning when, with the bases loaded, Taix brought a run home on a ground out. But Duncan lined out to end the inning  with no further damage a batter later.

Roussel doubled home a run after a Hailey Tassin single in the bottom half of the frame, then Watson grounded Roussel home to make it 4-1. 

Vosloh hit her own home run blast to right to cut the lead to 4-2 in the fifth, but the Rebels answered immediately with an Erica Delaneuville double and a Watson groundout RBI. RA made it 6-2 in the same inning via Rayne Weber’s RBI single.

Savoie homered for Dominican in the sixth but again, Riverside added two runs in its half, Perrin first tripling to lead off the inning and scoring on a Toni Hebert groundout. 

“(Perrin) has really been stepping up in the last few games,” said Kristy Hebert. “She’s focusing on her at-bats and not thinking about the last one. She just moves on to the next play and isn’t dwelling on anything.”

Sutton bunted on and scored on a Watson double to make it 8-3. 

“We stayed positive throughout the game,” said Perrin. 

“We never let ourselves get down after their scores, we just said ok and went back to work.”