By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

LUTCHER – St. Charles Catholic starting pitcher Jeremy Catoire should have a nickname. His nickname should be “Ironman.” Reason being is because Catoire pitched eight hard-fought innings as the Comets came from behind to defeat the Bulldogs 3-2 and advance to the quarterfinal’s of the 3A playoffs.

Trailing 2-1, St. Charles Catholic tied the game in the top of the seventh.

With Jeremy Poche on second, David Rollo singled, advancing Poche to third base. Following a Casey Robottom strikeout, Matt Sutton singled home the tying run.

After Catoire struckout the side in the bottom of the seventh, the Comets got the go ahead run in the top of the seventh. With Jesse Martin on second base, James Callahan hit an error that scored Martin from second base to take a 3-2 lead.

It was up to Catoire to shut down the Bulldogs in the eighth.

He got Justin Beasley to ground out to start the inning and then got Blake Louque to hit into a fielders choice for the second out of the inning.

The game ended when catcher Jeremy Poche caught Louque stealing to end the game.

Catoire struck out 10 and only walked two over eight innings.

Lutcher starting pitcher Josh Troxclair threw seven innings striking out 11 and allowing six hits.

In the bottom of second, the Bulldogs got their first run on the board. With two outs, Beasley reached second on an infield error and then scored on a single off the bat of Louque.

The Comets came back in the top of the third to tie the game 1-1. Robottom, the lead-off hitter, walked and moved into scoring position after stealing second base. Clean-up hitter Jesse Martin singled home Robottom to tie up the game. In the bottom of the inning, Lutcher took a 2-1 lead. With Jordie Perrilloux on second, third-baseman Wayne Albert smashed a triple that scored Perrilloux from second base. The inning ended when Chris Hymel flied out to second.

Over the next three innings, both teams struggled to manufacture runs. Troxclair struck out six hitters over three innings. In addition, he only allowed one baserunner, Matt Heltz.

Like Troxclair, Catoire performed just as good in the middle innings. He got into a couple of jams in the fourth and fifth innings, but managed to get out of them with no damage.

The Comets will play Amite Monday afternoon at 4pm in LaPlace.