By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Brighton Trepagnier’s no-hitter on Friday sparked East St. John to one of its three wins over the weekend, as the Wildcats seized some momentum heading into district 6-5A play this week.

The Wildcats open district play tomorrow at St. Amant.

 It took a little time, but East St. John is finally playing what Coach Ryan Sims calls “Wildcat baseball.”

“We’re definitely playing our brand of baseball,” Sims said. “We were starting to before, but now the kids have taken it and run with it. This is the best we’ve played all year.

“They’re doing above and beyond anything we could ever ask, just working extra hard.”

No hit outings tend to help as well. Trepagnier allowed no runs in his Friday start to lead East St. John over Terrebonne, 15-0 by the 10-run rule in six innings.

Trepagnier (2-0) struck out six batters in the performance, the team’s second game in the tournament.  

 Howard and Josh Brown each were 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Goff went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

The Wildcats (8-2-1) kicked off the tourney with a lopsided win in six innings over Ellender, 14-4 by the 10-run rule on Thursday.

The Wildcats led 4-3 entering the fifth inning when the team exploded for eight runs, leaving the Patriots far behind and with little hope for victory.

Kendrick Sentimore led the way at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Donald Goff was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Justin Howard was 2-for-2 with two RBIs.

As much as anyone else, Tori Zeno exemplified what Sims says “Wildcat baseball” is all about: aggressiveness of the base paths, creating havoc at the top of the order.

Zeno scored three runs and stole five bases in the win, while going 2-for-3 with an RBI.

“The guys at the top set the tone all weekend,” said Sims. “They set it up for our big guys, and they swung the bats well. It was a total team effort that set the tone for we want to do.”

Lionel Weston (2-1) allowed four runs on five hits and struck out four in a complete game effort.

East St. John played two games on Saturday. The first was the team’s third tournament victory, a 9-3 win in a rematch with Terrebonne.

Goff’s two-run home run in the third inning put the Wildcats ahead 5-0, proving to be all the cushion that starter Brandon Trant (2-0) needed for a win.

Trant went five innings and allowed two hits and one run.    

Corwin Brown was 2-for-4, and Sentimore went 2-for-3. Josh Brown was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

The only loss of the weekend for the Wildcats came at the hands of the tournament’s host. Bourgeois overcame a 7-5 East St. John lead in the fifth inning, scoring four runs to take a 9-7 lead.

East St. John responded in the sixth, tying the game, but Bourgeois scratched one final run across in the seventh to capture the 10-9 win.

Sentimore was 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Zeno was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Reynaldo Young was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored and two steals.

Young (0-1) took the loss in relief on the mound.