Destrehan entered the summer baseball season with an eye toward garnering valuable experience for its younger players and determining strengths and weaknesses for next season, recently wrapping up an American Legion season and closing in on the end of its weekend ball campaign,
The varsity team played in the weekend fare and went 5-14. In Legion play, the Wildcats opted to play its JV to garner some big game experience, and that squad went 4-10 overall, showing fight down to its last out in a Second District playoff loss to St. Charles Catholic.
“There are some new names out there and there’s definitely a transition we’re going through,” said DHS head coach Chris Mire. “There are a lot of guys going into their sophomore year we expect we’ll need to play. We definitely took some lumps early (in weekend ball) but overall we’ve played competitive baseball. We’re really just learning how to win again.”
Mire said some summer standouts include John Carmichael, a returning starter, along with outfielder Jonah Hauslauer and shortstop Brady Mire.
Hauslauer has emerged as a strong leadoff hitter, batting over .350 in the summer season. Brady Mire, meanwhile, has shown great promise defensively. Both will be sophomores next prep season.
“(Hauslauer) is always on base, always having great at-bats, and he’s kind of been taking off for us,” Chris Mire said. “Brady. we’re thinking will be our shortstop and he’s working through those freshman mistakes, learning as he gets reps. He’s had a good summer.”
Keston Granier and Gage Harding have also been swinging hot bats, Chris Mire noted.
Meanwhile, for the younger players, it was a slugfest in the Second District playoffs as River Region rivals Destrehan (ES&H) and St. Charles Catholic (Townsend Homes) faced off in a battle that, in the end, represented the end of the Wildcats’ American Legion season.
SCC scored in the bottom of the eighth inning to eliminate DHS, winning 12-11 and felling Destrehan for the second time in the double-elimination tournament. Destrehan fell 5-2 to Lutcher on day one of the tournament.
Destrehan rallied back to tie the game after falling behind 10-4 after three innings. A four run fifth pulled DHS within two runs, and the team tied things up and forced extra innings in the seventh on Luke Bordelon’s RBI single to score Jordan Donadieu.
Ian Arnett’s walk-off RBI single plated the game-winning run for St. Charles.
The ball was flying around the park on a hot Tuesday, and it added up to some big offensive numbers for players on both teams. Destrehan got big run-producing days from Brycen Harding, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and Cristian Ricks, who was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored. Garrett Borne went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI. Brady Mire (2-for-5, two runs), Luke Bordelon (2-for-3, RBI, run scored) and Jayse DeGruy (2-for-4, run scored, RBI) were others with strong numbers on a day where nine Wildcats collected at least one hit.
Borne doubled twice in the game, while Ricks added his own extra base hit.
Destrehan finished the summer with a 4-10 record. It was the beginning of a retooling process that sees the Wildcats turn over most of its lineup and pitching rotation from a prep roster with a strong and sizeable senior class.
“I was pretty proud of way we competed (all summer). We basically had unproven guys,” Chris Mire said. “I thought with the exception of one bad day where we weren’t mentally sharp, we showed up and competed every single day.”
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