By DAVID FOLSE II
Slidell sports writer
SLIDELL — In a battle between undoubtedly the best two teams in 6-5A, St. Paul’s avenged an early season district loss to Northshore by defeating the Panthers at home last Wednesday, 6-4.
Never trailing in the game, the Wolves pushed across a pair of runs in the first inning. William Heurtin led off the inning with a walk and Austin Barrios singled. On an attempted pickoff of Heurtin at second base, a pair of Northshore errors allowed him to score to make it 1-0.
Kyle Schimpf drove in Barrios a batter later with an RBI single.
The Panthers pushed across a pair of runs in the third inning on back-to-back RBI singles from Josh Marques and JP Lagreco.
Catcher Nick Chaisson was responsible for the next two runs for St. Paul’s with an RBI single in the second inning and a RBI double in the fourth inning.
The story of the game was Wolves right-hander Carlo Graffeo. A commitment to Southeastern, the right-hander picked up the complete game victory (4-2), allowing four runs on nine hits, striking out six and more importantly not walking a batter.
“We knew we were in for a dog fight,” Graffeo said. “This was going to be a tough game against a very good Northshore team. Fortunately enough we were able to get the job done at the plate and I was able to keep pounding the strike zone and allow my defense to do the work. I just think at the end of the day we were the team that wanted it more.”
Gary Cavallo (6-3) took the loss on the hill for the Panthers.