Destrehan head baseball coach Marty Luquet said he knows his team is better than its 3-8-1 record indicates, and he just might be right.
The Wildcats are in the midst of a four-game losing streak but each loss has been by three runs or less.
“We are actually playing pretty good. I scheduled as tough a preseason schedule as I could so we’re playing pretty well but we’re finding a way to make a mistake or we don’t come up with a big hit or something we need to win the game,” Luquet said.
Against Brother Martin Friday, the Wildcats had the bases loaded with one out in the first and second innings but only could plate one run as senior Shaine Babineaux scored on a wild pitch in the first. Those missed opportunities came back to haunt Destrehan as the Crusaders scored four runs in the second to take a 4-1 lead.
Brother Marin tacked on two more in the fourth before the Wildcats answered with two in the fifth, thanks to a Babineaux triple and junior Kurt McCune’s solo home run.
Last Thursday against Jesuit, Destrehan jumped out to a 1-0 lead with an RBI single by junior Matt Smith. Jesuit answered with three in the third. The Wildcats would load the bases with no outs in the sixth, but failed to score. Jesuit won 5-2.
Tuesday, Destrehan opened its home schedule at its newly renovated field against top-ranked Northshore (13-0), and Luquet said he will be preaching one thing to his team.
“We keep telling them that it is all the little things in a game that come up big. These close games can only help us down the stretch because when we get in those in district play, we’ll already have been there,” he said. “I know we are going to be one of the top teams in our district. I think the best baseball that we are going to play is still in front of us.”
The Wildcats will host Brother Martin at 4 p.m. Friday, host Jesuit at 3 p.m. Saturday and play Holy Cross at Hahnville at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Softball
After suffering two, tough losses to open 6-5A play, the Lady Wildcat softball team seemed destined for a winning weekend at the Higgins Tournament until the rain moved in.
Destrehan opened the tournament with a 15-1 win Friday night against John Ehret and was leading 3-0 in the third inning against Fisher before rain sent the team home early.
The Higgins tournament came on the heels of district play. Last Tuesday, the Lady Wildcats (5-9, 0-2 6-5A) dropped a 5-4 eight-inning heartbreaker to Hahnville.
The Lady Wildcats were down 4-1 for much of the game as Hahnville scored three runs, thanks in part to a two-run, outfield error in the third inning, but Destrehan would come storming back. During the final two innings, the Lady Wildcats knotted the score at four and had the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning. But Destrehan couldn’t come up with the big hit and failed to push the go-ahead run across. In the bottom half of the eighth, Hahnville’s lead-off hitter reached third on two passed balls and later scored.
“If a hit falls there, it is a whole different ballgame. The kids were behind, but they battled and never gave up on themselves,” Destrehan head coach Jacob Thompson said.
On Thursday, the Lady Wildcats dropped their second district contest, 6-1 at St. Amant, although Thompson said the score was a little misleading.
A misplayed outfield fly in the first inning led to two runs, and in the second inning, an unfortunate deflection off senior pitcher Desiree Harvey’s glove led to another two runs.
Even with the two losses, Thompson said he has been impressed with Texas Tech signee Harvey’s play along with first-year second baseman junior Kayla Kessling and freshman shortstop Amanda Rodriguez.
The Lady Wildcats will host East Ascension today at 4 p.m.
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