MICHAEL KIRAL

RESERVE – Riverside head coach Davey Clement has been preaching patience at the plate to his team this year. That patience paid off in the fourth inning against Bishop Sullivan Friday afternoon as the Rebels broke through for four runs on their way to a 9-4 victory in the opener of the Riverside Tournament. Riverside, which went on to defeat Mansfield and St. Charles Catholic in the tournament, improved to 7-4 on the season. Bishop Sullivan had the first rally, loading the bases with two outs in the top of the second as Lance Black singled to left, Brett Kabel was hit by a pitch and Danny Moore walked. But Riverside starter Brandon Delaneuville got out of the inning by striking out Kyle Cavalier. Delaneuville opened the bottom half of the inning against Moore by beating out a single to third. Joel Levin forced courtesy runner Jared St. Amant and went to second as Damian Melancon beat out a bunt along the third baseline. Scott Poirrier then beat out a single to short to load the bases. Jonathan Oubre followed with a single to center, scoring Levin and Melancon to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead. Sullivan came back with a run in the top of the fourth as Black went to second on a throwing error by Sean Delaneuville. A ground out to second by Kabel moved Black to third and Robby Cannon’s single to left brought him home to make it 2-1. Levin opened the bottom of the inning by slapping a single past short and went to second on Melancon’s grounder to third. Walks by Poirrier and Oubre loaded the bases for Bradley Hodges who came through with a single to center. Levin and Poirrier scored to make it 4-1. Two wild pitches scored Oubre and sent Hodges to third. After an intentional walk to Britt Waguespack, Sean Delaneuville popped up to Cannon in front of the first base dugout. Hodges raced home to the unguarded plate, giving the Rebels a 6-1 lead. “You just have to be patient until your inning comes around,” Clement said. “You’ve got to know what the pitcher is doing so when you get to the plate, you know what’s going to happen. About the third inning, we noticed he was throwing nothing but offspeed.” Riverside added a run in the bottom of the fifth as Brandon Delaneuville led off with a double past third. Two outs later, Poirrier delivered a single between third and short, scoring St. Amant running for Delaneuville to make it 7-1. Sullivan used a two-out rally of its own to pull to within 7-4 in the top of the sixth. Moore kept the inning alive with a single to center and went to second on a wild pitch. After a walk by Cavalier, Ryan Daily doubled to the left field fence, scoring courtesy runner Adam Magee and sending Cavalier to third. Corey Guedry followed with a single to left, bringing home both Cavalier and Daily to cut the deficit to three. Delaneuville got out of further trouble by striking out Anthony Gray to end the inning. Riverside answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Hodges singled past short to lead off the inning and stole second. Waguespack and D.J. Fortenberry walked to load the bases with one out. Delaneuville followed with a single down the left field line, scoring Hodges and Waguespack to make it 9-4. Derrick Louque came in to pitch the top of the seventh and gave up a single to left by Wes Porter. After Porter advanced to second on a wild pitch, Louque came back to strike out Black and Kabel. Chris Reeves then came in to pitch and got Cannon to ground out to second to end the game. Delaneuville went six innings, giving up four walks and seven hits while striking out eight to improve to 2-1 on the season. Moore took the loss, giving up 10 hits and six walks while striking out five. Riverside defeated St. Charles Catholic, 10-0, in the tournament finale Sunday afternoon. Louque got the win, improving to 2-0 on the season. Sean Delaneuville homered twice and drove in two runs. Waguespack went 3-for-3.