By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — East St. John defeated Central Lafourche 9-3 last Saturday to earn its third district win, but fell twice this week to 7-5A foes H.L. Bourgeois, 4-1, and Hahnville, 11-1. 

In the win over Central Lafourche, East St. John broke the game open in a fourth inning that saw the Wildcats score six runs and offer more than enough support  for starter Don Creecy. Creecy pitched all seven innings, allowing six hits and walking two. He struck out one. 

At the plate, Creecy, I’leke Brown and Chase Henderson each scored two runs. 

East St. John trailed 3-0 in the first inning but Creecy shut the Trojans (9-17, 3-8) out from there, facing the minimum after the first. 

“He only faced four batters in an inning in that first inning,” said East St. John coach Shan Williams. “He had command of all his pitches and buckled down after we fell behind. It gave us the chance to take control of the game.”

Williams said the Wildcats (5-21, 3-8) maintained discipline at the plate and kept runners on base by drawing walks, led by Amani Martin’s three free passes. 

“Our guys saw a lot of pitches and their starter got in some trouble,” said Williams. “We put it in play and they made some errors, and it added up to him having to throw a lot of pitches.”

Against H.L. Bourgeois, the Wildcats mustered only two hits. Ryan Foster took the loss on the mound, going the complete game and allowing just four hits. 

“He pitched well enough for us to win,” said Williams. 

“We just didn’t hit it timely or well at all. We had bases loaded twice with no outs and got just one run from it. It was a tough outing.”

Amani Martin registered three hits against Hahnville (19-10, 9-2) on Thursday, but the Wildcats had another tough hitting day against Tiger pitching. 

Matthew Fontenot and Matt LeBlanc each drove in two runs for Hahnville.