MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / March 13, 1999

LAPLACE – The St. Charles Catholic Lady Comets started their journey inDistrict 9-2A with a 13-2 victory over Ridgewood in the district opener for both teams Thursday afternoon at Lady Comet Field.

The game was called in the middle of the sixth inning due to rain.

St. Charles Catholic improved to 6-6 overall and 1-0 in district play.Ridge-wood fell to 0-1 overall.

The Lady Comets, which finished second to Riverside in the district last year, got out of a jam in the top of the first. Jill Gallagher led off againststarting pitcher Marci Martin by blooping a single over the mound. AmyWood followed with a walk and was forced at second on Jackie Levy’s grounder as Gallagher went to third. After Levy stole second, Martincaught Rachel Rand’s pop up for the second out. Martin then fielded ToniSteen’s chopper back to the mound to end the inning.

Lacey Trepagnier opened the bottom of the inning with a walk off Ridgewood starter Devin Dunkin and Cristin Clement followed by beating out a bunt.

After both runners moved up on a wild pitch, Jessie Zeringue lined to third with Wood tagging out Trepagnier to complete the double play. ShannonDolive then came through with the two-out hit, a single past second, scoring Clement to make it 1-0.

St. Charles Catholic threatened again in the bottom of the second asKristen Clement reached on an error and Alisha Reine walked. Trepagnierthen laced a fly ball to left field with Rand making a diving catch for the third out.

Cristin Clement led off the bottom of the third by beating out a bunt and came around to score as catcher April Bellow’s throw went into right field. One out later, Dolive walked, Martin singled to left and Sarah Weberwalked to load the bases.

Courtney Vicknair then cleared them, knocking a triple over the first base bag to make the score 5-0. Vicknair came home as Kristen Clementreached on a throwing error by Levy at short.

The Lady Comets added three runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-0. After Zeringue led off with a walk, courtesy runner Jenni Traina camein to score as Dolive beat out a grounder to short and Levy threw past first.

Martin and Weber followed with singles, scoring Dolive. Courtesy runnerKatie Arcuri scored as Vicknair reached on a throwing error by Bellow.

Trepagnier and Cristin Clement led off the fifth with infield singles. Bothrunners moved up on a passed ball and scored as Levy’s throw on Zeringue’s grounder went into the dirt at first.

Dolive then laced a double into the right-center field gap, plating Traina running for Zeringue, and scored as Martin reached on an error by Wood to make it 13-0.

Ridgewood scored two in the top of the sixth as Wood walked and Levy reached on an error with one out. Rand singled to first to load the basesbefore Martin got Steen to pop up to second for the second out.

With Bellow at the plate, Wood came in as Zeringue threw down to first to try to pick off Rand and beat the return throw by Clement. Bellow thenreached on an infield single to short to score Levy. Martin ended the gameby getting Dunkin to ground out to short.

Martin improved to 5-4 with the victory, giving up four hits while walking two and striking out six.

“We are starting to come around a little bit,” St. Charles Catholic coachTeri Hruska said. “Our goal for every game is to play better and do everylittle thing better. To come together as a team and know what each playerwill do. We are getting there. I felt we started a little slowly todayoffensively, but we came around with the bats and that was exciting.

“We’ve lost some close ones to some good teams. I told them we can’tafford to lose any in district. We knew our journey had to start today.”St. Charles Catholic travels to St. Martin’s Tuesday.

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