By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – East St. John kept out of an early hole against rival Destrehan Thursday. But the Wildcats’ Zach Schexnaydre’s home run in the seventh inning lifted his team to a 6-2 District 6-5A win over ESJ.

Schexnaydre’s home run came with two outs in the top of the seventh, after an error by the Wildcats extended the inning. DHS would add two more runs and keep the ESJ bats quiet in the bottom of the seventh for the win.

“Today, it was about us not finishing,” said East St. John coach Ronald August. “It’s a bit disappointing. We had chances to be leading at that point, and obviously a chance to hold them in the seventh.”

Darnell Lee was 1 for 3 with both RBIs for East St. John. Justin Moore went 2 for 3 with a triple.

Daniel Franklin went the complete game, allowing three earned runs and striking out four.

ESJ had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Courtney Freeman singled and reached third on a pair of passed balls with one out. But Destrehan recorded a pair of strikeouts to end the threat.

“We definitely got up to play them,” said August. “It doesn’t take much to get you up when your rival comes to play.

“We gave them our best shot. But we still need to improve on the little things, the mental errors, that part of it all.

The teams will play again today at 2 p.m. Destrehan leads the series 2-0 this season.

“We competed with them, right there,” said August.

“It slipped away. They’ve seen our best, we’ve seen their best. So there won’t be any surprises.”