BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

DESTREHAN-His team may have lost 9-0 against one of the best high school softball teams in the country, but Destrehan Head Coach Russell Shaw said his team learned a lot of good lessons that will help them throughout the rest of the season.

Falling to 5-1-1 on the season, the Lady Wildcats had their chance against the defending 5A State Champs, but mental mistakes and errors ended up costing them the game.

“My kids were nervous,” Shaw said. “We just had some errors that opened the door for them (St. Amant) to score the runs definitely. That was in the early part of the game.

“In the late part of the game they hit the ball very hard and we didn’t make the plays. We had a couple of errors mixed in there, but we just fell apart.”

While no coach is happy when his team loses a game, Shaw said the loss against the Lady Gators is something that his Lady Wildcat squad can learn from and become better because of just participating in a game against a team the caliber of St. Amant.

“No loss is great, but this was a good loss,” Shaw said. “I scheduled these guys on purpose because like I have said before I wanted our kids to see what a state championship team looked like.

“A loss like this doesn’t count against us in terms of making the playoffs or anything so I think that we are going to be a better team because of this loss and learn from our mistakes. Even though the score ended up being ugly, I think that we are going to benefit from it in the long run.”