After being trounced by their archrival Hahnville on Monday, Destrehan players said the 10-0 loss served as a wake-up call. After Wednesday’s rematch, consider the Wildcats up and at ’em.
DHS emerged with a 5-2 victory at Hahnville today to seal the outright District 7-5A championship.
The Wildcats avenged their prior loss to the Tigers, earning the win on the back of a four-run sixth inning. Destrehan finished with a district mark of 11-1. Had Hahnville won, the Tigers would have forced a shared district championship.
“Monday was kind of a chin-check for us,” said Destrehan coach Chris Mire. “Today, I wanted to see how our guys responded … we weren’t expecting to get beat the way we did. We worked on what we could do better for the last 48 hours.
Dustin Weber led the Wildcats (21-9, 11-1) at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Dylan Weber and Nathan Rhodes each tallied a hit and RBI.
But perhaps the biggest impact for Destrehan came in the form of Wildcats pitcher Josh MacCord’s strong starting performance. MacCord had been dealing with tendinitis in his elbow and had pitched sparingly of late, but looked to be in top form Wednesday. He struck out nine and allowed four hits and an earned run over 5.1 innings to earn the win. Avery Schexnaydre pitched 1.2 scoreless, hitless innings of relief to close it out, striking out two along the way.
“I felt great,” said MacCord. “I was getting ahead in the count … I’ve been coming out of the pen a lot because of my injury. But it’s Hahnville, so I’ve gotta give it what I’ve got.”
Mire said the coaching staff had scaled back MacCord’s workload a few weeks back when he appeared to be at less than 100 percent on the mound. But during a recent relief appearance against Terrebonne, his pitches had bite once again.
“He threw the ball like the old Josh MacCord, and that’s why we gave him the ball today. We felt he was ready for it,” Mire said.
Hahnville coach David Baudry concurred.
“Josh gets all the credit,” Baudry said. “He came in and threw the ball real well. We weren’t aggressive like we needed to be. He made us not aggressive by the pitches he threw.”
Jack Stumbo took the loss for Hahnville, allowing three earned runs on five hits in 5.1 innings of work. Hayden Theriot and Collin Zeringue each drove in runs offensively for Hahnville (13-17, 9-3).
Dueling RBI singles by Rhodes and Zeringue had the teams knotted up 1-1 entering the sixth inning.
Destrehan started generating baserunners to begin that frame, with Schexnaydre reaching via error, T.J. Thomas on a single and Nathan Rhodes drawing a walk to load the bases. Dylan Weber was hit by a pitch to force in a run, and Cade Tramuta drew a walk to do the same.
Dustin Weber then landed the big blow, his two run double making it 5-1 and giving Destrehan firm control of the game.
“Coach Mire gave me the green light … he said if it’s there, go for it and I did,” Weber said.
He said that the Wildcats were indeed hungry for this one after Monday’s defeat.
“It’s special for me because I’m a senior,” Weber said. “It’s an amazing feeling to win, especially getting that redemption after Monday … we knew we had to win today. We didn’t score any runs on Monday, and today we knew we had to put pressure on their defense and score runs.”
Though Hahnville was not able to close out a district championship with a win, Baudry couldn’t feel too down following the game — his team, once 1-12, entered Wednesday’s game on a 13-4 run and had forced a game to decide the 7-5A crown, something that seemed highly improbable just a few weeks back.
“It’s all about those guys,” Baudry said, motioning to his players. “They worked their butts off. Because of their hard work, we righted the ship. We’re ready to go into the playoffs, because they deserve
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