By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — West St. John kept its playoff hopes alive last week by winning a District 8-1A slugfest, the Rams capturing a 21-11 home victory over East Iberville.

WSJ (5-9, 2-7) sat at No. 34 in the Class 1A power rankings as of Tuesday morning, but with two games rained out recently, the Rams’ last hope to jump into the top 32 for playoff qualification is today’s home game with East St. John. 

A victory over the Class 5A Wildcats, Rams’ coach Brandon Dumas hopes, could be enough of a push for the Rams to climb into the field.

“You know, when it’s East St. John and West St. John, it’s always a good thing for the kids, the parents, the community,” said Dumas. “Everyone knows one another, from the players who are friends to the coaches. We see their coaches every day. They do a good job.’

“Things have kind of settled into place for us. Sydnei (Young) is at her best on the mound. I think we’ve got a good chance to win. Hopefully that would be the push we need to get in.”

West St. John rallied from a 9-5 deficit against East Iberville (3-12, 0-10), scoring a whopping 14 runs in the fifth and final inning to not only take the lead but close things out by the 10 run rule. 

“It took us awhile to catch up to their pitcher,” said Dumas. “Once we got through the lineup a couple of times, we caught up. We just kept telling them to keep fighting and that our big inning was gonna come.”

Tre’Shaun Trench went 3 for 3 with an RBI and stolen base. Tamika Howard went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three stolen bases and Kaieonne Sorapuru went 2 for 3 with two triples, two RBIs and two steals.