St. Charles set for quarter-finals game vs Pope John Paul Friday

By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

LAPLACE – It’s sort of fitting that a good old showdown be dominated by a player named Western.

Courtney Western, freshman pitcher for St. Charles, led the Lady Comets past Riverside 10-0 last Friday afternoon in a regional playoff game where she went a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate while allowing just three hits through a full seven innings. The victory puts the St. Charles softball squad up against Pope John Paul this Friday for the quarter-finals round in Sulphur while it puts Riverside out of the tournament for the first time in three years.

Saturday’s meeting between the 10-2A archrivals was the third meeting between the two schools in the last three weeks. St. Charles won the last tilt 3-1 in a playoff tie-breaker last week and took the first outing 4-3 back on March 27.. Riverside was dominant in the second district meeting, winning by a 10-0 score through six and a half innings.

This time around, SCC wasted no time setting the tone as Western gave up a walk but held the base-runner at first while recording a strikeout to end the side. She then stepped up as the leadoff batter for the Lady Comets and singled. Katie Tregre and Lauren Coniglio got pinch runner Emily Bourgeois all the way to third with sacrifices and Brooke Becker got the RBI with a single up the middle.

The Lady Comets added to that with three runs in the bottom of the third. That came on three straight RBI singles by Becker, Katie Reine and Addie Reine.

Riverside tried to answer in the fourth inning when Marci Millet led off with a single and Ayla Vicknair walked to put two on. Brittany St. Pierre came up next and sent a hotline to Western. But the pitcher snagged the ball and got the next batter to ground out to end the threat.

That’s when SCC blew it open, taking advantage of Gina Monica’s walk at the leadoff position. Coniglio moved her over with a sacrifice bunt and Western loaded the bases with her second single of the game. Tregre got two of her three RBIs with a single in the inning and Reine got two more with her second hit of the game. Riverside’s St. Pierre interupted the burst with a double play on a line drive. But the game came to a close one inning later when Western hit a a double, scoring one, and Tregre added an RBI single to get SCC the 10-0 win.

Western took the win to go to 6-2 on the season. She allowed only five base-runners through the five inning game and struck out six batters in the first three innings. Nicole Poirrier (10-8) went the distance in the effort for the Lady Rebels, walking just two, but giving up nine hits throughout.

The Lady Rebels finish the year with a season record of 20-14 after going 5-4 through a once again strong district 10-2A. John Curtis and St. Charles, the top two seeds in 2A and the two teams that have met for the last two state championship games, are still alive and may meet again for the third consecutive year. But the Lady Comets (23-6) need two more wins to get there.

Friday’s match-up with Pope John Paul will be the third meeting between SCC and PJP this season, with the Lady Comets taking both by wins of 5-3 and 4-1. The first meeting was close as the Lady Jaguars out-hit the St. Charles squad, but Ashley Trosclair struck out five and kept them off of the board until the fifth inning once the Lady Comets had taken a 5-0 lead.

The second meeting between St. Charles and Pope John Paul came in the second game of the Northshore tournament on March 10 where SCC got the win with defense. Western got the start and allowed just one run in the Lady Comet victory.