By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS — In the days leading up to the American Legion Southeast Regional, Otto Candies coach David Baudry spoke of how much of a lift it was to have a pitcher like Tyler Lamers leading his rotation.

Boy, is it.

Lamers tossed a one-hit shutout and went nine complete innings to lead his Hahnville-based club to a 3-0 victory over Jesuit-based Retif Oil Saturday at Delgado’s Kirsch-Rooney Stadium. 

“This type of performance is huge,” Baudry said. “When you throw your best guy, you’re usually banking on having to win that first game. Last year, we were fortunate enough to climb our way out after winning the first one, but you really don’t want to put yourself in that position.”

The victory preceded a 7-4 Candies victory over Deanie’s Seafood Sunday and a 6-4 victory over Peake BMW Monday that pushed Otto Candies into prime position to qualify for the state tournament. Otto Candies was still alive to win the double-elimination tournament outright as of Tuesday morning’s publication deadline. 

Against Retif, Lamers struck out 12 and walked five. He had a no-hitter going into the seventh.

“I was really feeling it today,” Lamers said. “This win puts us in the driver’s seat. Starting off this way is huge for us.”

Garret Smith scored in the bottom of the first inning on an error to give Otto Candies a 1-0 advantage. 

It grew to 2-0 after Drew Favre led off the fourth with a single. He’d reach third and Smith’s sacrifice fly plated him to make it 2-0.

In the fifth, Dylan Keller doubled and Chase Bagot followed with an RBI single to round out the day’s scoring in a relatively quick affair. 

Meanwhile, Lamers seemingly got stronger as the afternoon went on. He struck out two batters in each of the sixth and seventh inning and closed out the game by striking out the side in order in the ninth.

“We talked about his pitch count. He told me, ‘Coach, talk to me about it after the game.’ He didn’t want to come out. He settled around 125. For him to go the entire distance and for us to get the win, it saves our staff.’”

Lamers lost his no-hitter with a little tough luck at his back.  Ben Hess recorded his team’s only hit on an infield single, one that Lamers reached out for but only slowed enough to make him chase it. 

“Yeah, I was thinking about it the whole way,” Lamers said of the no-hit bid. 

“But after that, I got into a groove. It took the pressure off, really.”

Just two Retif baserunners reached after Hess’ single, both on errors. 

 

OTTO CANDIES 7, DEANIE’S 4 — Rummel-based Deanie’s Seafood led by two early, but a six-run fifth inning guided Otto Candies to victory Sunday. 

Chase Bagot’s RBI triple set the tone in the fifth, and Candies banged out six more hits in the inning to build a 6-2 advantage. Candies led 7-2 at one point. 

Mark Abate earned the win for Otto Candies, moving to 6-0 this summer.

 

OTTO CANDIES 6, PEAKE BMW 4 — Mark Abate’s eighth inning two-run triple to left-centerfield broke a 4-4 tie and lifted Otto Candies to an eventual 6-4 victory, officially punching Otto Candies’ ticket to the state tournament. 

Abate finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs. 

Logan Billingsley started for Otto Candies (16-5-1) and allowed four runs on three hits over 6.1 innings. He struck out nine. Waylon LeBlanc earned the win in relief for Otto Candies, allowing one hit over the final two innings. 

Otto Candies led 4-1 before Peake Rallied to tie with a three-run seventh inning.