Last weekend, the Blue Jay baseball team finished the Gerard Oubre Memorial with three straight wins out of their four tournament games. The Jays’ third and final win came over the Hahnville Tigers, who had just slipped past Jesuit 4-3 in the preceding Barbe tourney.

In fact, when the Jays fell 8-4 to Destrehan in their Oubre opener, they had three straight losses entering the weekend. With hot hitting and patient pitching, though, the Jays quickly ended the losing streak and started their ongoing winning streak. After beating Lake Charles Prep, Hammond, and Hahnville to close out the Oubre tourney, Jesuit won its Catholic League opener (see score) on Tuesday, March 21 at Shaw. The team looks to defend their now 4-game win streak with another victory over Shaw on Friday, March 23 (see details).

Michael Torry

Gerard Oubre Memorial
Game 4: Jesuit 10, Hahnville 4

Saturday, March 17 at 4PM

In the final game of the Oubre Memorial, the Jesuit baseball team captured its 10th victory of the season with a 10-4 handling of Hahnville on the Tigers’ home field. Jesuit (10-6) finished the tournament with three straight wins.

The Jays grabbed a 4-0 lead after the first frame, which opened with a lead-off single from Michael Torry. Will Hellmers followed with an RBI single that scored Torry, and catcher Parker Serio turned on a 3-RBI double in the inning. Hahnville knocked in a run each in the 1st and the 2nd, so the Jays led 4-2 after two.

Jesuit then responded with four more in an exciting 4th. The fun started when Brenden Berggren singled to score Sean Seghers, the pinch runner for Serio. Berggren reached home off of an RBI from Torry, who then scored off a Will Moran single. Hellmers proved himself again by knocking in Moran with an RBI triple. The Tigers added one, but the inning ended as the game began—with a 4-run Jesuit lead.

In the 7th Zach Casebonne hit a 2-run homer, dead center.

Starting pitcher Christian Hess held his own throughout the contest, ending with three straight shutout innings. The team finished the game with 12 hits and 10 RBIs. Pitching all seven innings, Hess earned the win with six strikeouts and just two hits allowed.

Game 3: Jesuit 7, Hammond 4

Sophomore Will Hellmers

Saturday, March 17 at 11AM

The Jays started strong and finished comfortably against the Hammond Tornadoes, winning 7-4. Game 3 served as the first leg of Saturday’s doubleheader in the final day of the Oubre Tournament.

With the glove and the bat, Jesuit showed their colors early behind the arm of Will Moran. After a Jesuit double play closed out the top of the 1st, senior Alex Watermeier continued his hot streak with an RBI base hit in the bottom frame. Matt Alexander and Will Hellmers preceded Watermeier’s hit with one of their own. The Jays finished with five hits and five runs after the 1st inning.

In the top of 5th, good fielding continued as Jesuit maintained its five-run lead, 7-2. Reliever Collin Miller took the mound in the 6th and allowed a two-run homer, but he bounced back with two strikeouts to close out the inning. Miller recorded the save after a scoreless 7th, and Moran earned the win with five strikeouts.

Hellmers, the cleanup, finished the game with three RBIs.

Senior Alex Watermeier

Game 2: Jesuit 17, Lake Charles Prep 1

Friday, March 16

The Blue Jay baseball team stormed to a 17-1 victory over Lake Charles College Prep (LCC) at John Ryan Stadium. Blue Jay starter Lee Blosser (2-2) earned the win over the Trailblazers while designated hitter Alex Watermeier led the offensive charge with a two-hit, four-RBI showing.

Three of Watermeier’s four RBIs came in one at-bat, a triple, in the crazy 3rd inning when Jesuit put up 10 total runs.

Seven other Jays put the bat on the ball to give the team nine total hits and 13 RBIs. Michael Torry and Seth Dardar joined Watermeier in a multi-RBI performance, turning in two each.

In a 5-inning game shortened by the mercy rule, Blosser added seven strikeouts to his overall count and brought his season record back to .500. He allowed just one hit, and the lone Trailblazer run came off a fielding error. Only one Blue Jay error shows improvement from Jesuit’s opening loss against Destrehan.

The win over LCC kicked off weekend play for Jesuit and improved its record to 1-1 in the Gerard Oubre Memorial.

Sophomore Brian Valigosky

Game 1: Jesuit 4, Destrehan 8

Thursday, March 15

In Game 1 of the Oubre Tournament, Jesuit prevented a Destrehan shutout with four last-inning runs but fell to the Wildcats, 8-4. While Destrehan doubled Jesuit’s runs, the Jays doubled the Wildcats’ number in the hit column. The Wildcats tallied just three hits off three Jesuit pitchers—starter Brian Valigosky, reliever Chris Favalora, and reliever Shane Lanson.

The most telling stat, though, was the errors. Jesuit committed five errors that led to six unearned Wildcat runs. These fielding mistakes have been the main burden that Jesuit carries through the month of March. After the Destrehan game, the Jays committed over 15 errors in March alone.

Jesuit had four of its six hits in the top of the 7th. Will Moran hit a two-run double and eventually scored as two RBI singles followed from Seth Dardar and Sean Seghers.

Valigosky recorded four strikeouts in the tournament-opening loss.

Catch live game updates for the upcoming action by following JesuitNOLA Baseball (@JHSNolaBaseball) on Twitter!