Michael Kiral / L’Observateur / June 24, 1998

DESTREHAN – After recent games in which East St. Charles Post 366/195had trouble getting runners in from scoring position, coach Mark Willoughby wanted his team to be more aggressive at the plate and on the bases against Otto Candies Saturday afternoon.

East St. Charles did just that, putting the ball in play and forcing OttoCandies into six errors for a 14-2 Second District East victory.

Destrehan-based East St. Charles improved to 4-5 in district play and 7-8overall with the victory. Hahnville-based Otto Candies, which had wonthree of its last four games going into Saturday, fell to 3-7 overall and 3- 6 in district play.

East St. Charles took little time in jumping out on top. Justin St. Pierreled off the bottom of the first with a single against Otto Candies starter Brian Risinger and came around to score as Kenny Perrier lined a triple past a diving Kade Rogers in center. Perrier was then caught in a run-downbetween home and third on Craig Naquin’s grounder to third baseman Mike Picard.

Mike Bierman followed with a single to left on the hit-and-run with courtesy runner Mike Catalano coming in to score as left fielder Erik Donnaud’s throw went into the East St. Charles dugout. Bierman went tothird on the play and scored on Roberto Martinez’s single to left, giving East St. Charles a 3-0 lead. After another hit and run single by Averien Veneralla put runners at the corners with one out, Martinez scored as Veneralla broke for second on a steal attempt and was caught in a run-down.

Otto Candies cut the deficit in half in the top of the second as Tommy Theriot led off the inning with a home run to right-center against Naquin.

Chris Hawkins followed by getting hit by a pitch and courtesy runner Tim Sirmon advanced to third on an errant pick-off throw.

After Naquin came back to strike out Justin Champagne and Donnaud, Blake Matherne dropped a single over second base to bring in Sirmon, making the score 4-2.

East St. Charles answered in the bottom of the inning as Ben McLaren ledoff with an infield single and advanced to third on throwing errors by Matherne at short and Theriot at first.

After Danny Krieger was hit by a pitch and stole second, both courtesy runner Todd Picou and Krieger scored as Risinger’s throw on St. Pierre’sgrounder went into right field. Perrier followed with a grounder pastMatherne to score St. Pierre, giving East St. Charles a 7-2 lead.Post 366/195 opened up a 14-2 lead with six runs in the fourth. With oneout, Naquin doubled along the right field line and Catalano scored on Bierman’s single to right. Bierman, who went to second on the throw in,then stole third and scored on an overthrow by Hawkins.

Walks by Martinez and Veneralla and a fielder’s choice by Jason Pick loaded the bases. McLaren then launched a 2-2 pitch over the left fieldwall, giving East St. Charles a 12-run lead. “We had been struggling in the past couple of games to get runners in from scoring position,” Willoughby said. “We wanted to be aggressive and putpressure on the defense to make the plays. We put the ball in play andmade them make plays they were not ready for.”Naquin improved to 3-2 on the season, giving up three hits while striking out eight.

Risinger (0-4) gave up eight hits while three and striking out five. Six ofthe East St. Charles runs were unearned.”When ever we made an error, it was pretty big,” Otto Candies coach Britt Oubre said. “Hopefully we can bounce back and get another streak going again.”

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