By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

It was another exciting year locally for several baseball teams. We were privileged enough to see Riverside, St. Charles Catholic, East St. John, Destrehan, Hahnville and Lutcher all see post season action.

We were even lucky to have Destrehan be ranked the number two team in the nation. What a tremendous accomplishment for Destrehan baseball coach Marty Luquet and his staff. The two other 5A schools in the area, East St. John and Hahnville, finished in second and third place, behind Destrehan.

Before the season started, I honestly felt that a third place finish by East St. John and a a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 1998 was out of reach for Macky Waguespack’s ball club.

My pre-season thoughts were that district 6-5A would end up finishing first. Destrehan number second. Hahnville third and Central Lafourche. I figured a fourth place finish and a winning record for East St. John would be respectable enough for the Wildcats.

They have overcome so much adversity, while at times looking terrible against Destrehan and Hahnville, that you almost have to look at them as the “Cinderella Team” of the playoff teams that are in 5A.

As I am writing this, their game with Holy Cross is scheduled to be played today.

Ironically, if the Wildcats win they could play district foe Central Lafourche in the second round or regional round of the playoffs.

One thing that I did not like to see was St. Charles Catholic having to play Lutcher in the regional round of the playoffs. I think that every team in their district should want to see other teams in the district do well in the post-season. It is a shame that 10-3A has a team eliminated. That is also one less team that I will have to worry about covering.

It ended up to be a battle to remember. It was almost like a “Rocky” movie.

Neither team gave an inch, and both pitchers battled like true warriors (Catoire for St. Charles Catholic and Josh Troxclair for Lutcher). It even went into extra innings.

For a while, I thought to myself “I might be here for a while.” It turned out the game went to the eighth inning before the Comets would score the go ahead run to take the lead for good.

What a finish.

What a post-season.

Earlier this week, I saw another thrilling down to the wire game with Riverside and Loranger.

A never-say-die attitude lifted the Rebels to a come-from-behind victory over the Wolves.

Let’s hope the excitement continues for a while.