By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — West St. John held off a rally by White Castle to take an 8-7 District 8-1A victory Wednesday in Edgard.

Austin Howard earned the victory in relief after closing the game with 1.2 scoreless innings. He allowed one hit.

“Austin came in and shut it down,” said West St. John coach Greg Joseph. 

“He’s our guy and he came in and did what he had to do in a huge spot.”

Howard entered the game in the top of the sixth inning with one out and bases loaded, WSJ up 8-7. He struck out the next two Bulldog batters to stop the comeback.

West St. John led 6-1 at one point.

Anfernee Lumar delivered the day’s biggest hit, a double that drove in three much-needed runs. Keith Miller added an RBI on a sacrifice fly. 

“(Lumar) came up big there,” said Joseph. “We were a little sluggish at the plate today for the most part, but he hit it real well today. We needed that from him to pick us up.”

White Castle dropped to 6-12 overall and 2-5 in district.

West St. John was ranked in the 21st spot in Class 1A power points entering Wednesday’s game. With his team left with contests against Ascension Christian (Tuesday at ACHS) and Ascension Catholic (Thursday at West St. John), Joseph said the Rams need to finish strong to hold that position.

The Ascension Catholic game, in particular, could help the Rams move up. Ascension Catholic was ranked 12th in Class1A as of Thursday afternoon.

“The last few years, we’ve been seeded pretty low and we’ve had to go play a top tier team, a 1, 2 or 3-seed,” said Joseph. 

“If we can stick around this spot, then we can draw maybe an 11 or 12. That’s obviously where we’d rather be.”