By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

West St. John overcame an early three run deficit on Tuesday to take a 15-8 District 9-1A victory over North Iberville.

North Iberville led 5-2 after a five run fourth inning, before the Ram bats came alive. West St. John scored six runs in the fifth, four runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh to give starting pitcher Karl Herbert (3-2) enough breathing room to take the win.

“Any time you can win, and score 15 runs in doing it, you’ve got to be happy,” said West St. John Coach Lennix Madere.

The win puts West St. John (4-5, 3-2) in third place in District 9-1A. The top three teams qualify for the postseason.

Kenny Taylor led the way for the Rams at the plate by going 4-for-5 with two RBis and two runs. He doubled twice. Brad Robertson went 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Romell Howard was 2-for-5 with three RBIs. And Alton Joseph was 2-for-5 as well.

In all, the Rams finished with 16 hits to fuel their 15 runs. And Madere said that for the first time in the last three district games, his team’s offense delivered in the clutch.

“We finally hit with people on base,” Madere said. “From the fifth inning on, we hit real well.”

Herbert exhibited some control problems, walking seven batters. But when he was on, the Bears had all kinds of trouble handling him. He allowed only four hits in a complete game effort. Four North Iberville runs were earned.

Herbert struck out 10 batters in the performance.

“He was a little inconsistent around the fifth and sixth innings,” said Madere. “Shaky at times, and some errors we made behind him didn’t help. But he recovered well.”

The Bears’ five-run fourth saw them do the damage while mustering only one hit, while drawing four walks and taking advantage of two Ram errors.

But the Ram offense answered the call, and seems to be back to form – good news with the second round of district play in full swing.

“We’re definitely looking forward to carrying this hitting performance with us into the next game,” Madere said.