By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

Saturday marked the first official day of Spring. It has been feeling like Spring for the last several days, maybe even weeks. Sports wise, Spring means Spring Training games in Major League Baseball, the NFL draft and the NCAA Mens and Women’s Final Four. In other sports, it means the Masters, NASCAR races and a plethora of championship boxing matches.

For me, locally, it means prep baseball and softball are underway. I have seen a combined 19 games so far this Spring. Some were good and some were bad.

I have also done a little bit of scouting in some of these non-district contests. I am trying to figure out who may be good and who may surprise some of us. One of the baseball teams that may surprise us is St. James.

The Wildcats, who are coached by Shane Trosclair, have a couple of good pitchers on their staff who get ahead in the count often. The only problem with St. James making a run at the district is that the district consists of Lutcher, St. Charles Catholic and E.D. White. Those three teams should earn playoff spots.

Speaking of St. Charles Catholic, they have perhaps the best pitching staff of anybody, with maybe the exception of Destrehan, in the River Parishes. If left-hander Jeremy Catoire does not get you, then probably either Jesse Martin or relief pitcher Zane LeBlanc will. The Comets have been extremely productive at the plate recently. They scored 11 runs against Ridgewood, 10 against Riverside Academy and 10 against Dunham. If you are superstitious, then the reason why the Comets have been scoring is because assistant coach Ty Monica has replaced head coach Paul Waguespack at third base. If you’re not superstitious, then the reason is because the Comets have been productive at the plate, especially from their four, five and six hole hitters.

No reason to panic if you are a Riverside fan. The Rebels will be fine once district play starts and may end up being one of the top 2A teams in Louisiana before it’s all said and done. East St. John is an interesting team. ESJ head coach Macky Waguespack has a good pitching staff in place. Trayvon Lilly recently pitched a shutout against a good Pontchatula team. Throw in Dominick Thomas and Alex McCollum and you have a nice rotation. Like St. James, it may be difficult for ESJ to get into the playoffs with Destrehan, Hahnville and maybe Central Lafourche near the top of the district.

Destrehan is the number four ranked team in the nation. I said IN THE NATION. Head Coach Marty Luquet and his club had to rally for a thrilling victory over rival Hahnville last week.

How good is Destrehan remains to be seen. Like with all of these teams, time will tell.