By RYAN ARENA

L’Observatuer

St. Charles staved off a late Lutcher rally Thursday to preserve a 4-3 District 9-3A victory in LaPlace.

It was the district opener for both teams.

“It’s always good to start district with a win over your archrival,” said St. Charles coach Ty Monica. “But it really means nothing until you follow it by beating them again. You have to finish what you start.

“I told the girls, ‘Congratulations. But let’s not start popping open the champagne just yet.’”

The Comets (12-2, 1-0)) led 4-1 entering the top of the seventh inning, but the first three Bulldog batters reached to load the bases with no outs.

After a bases-loaded walk made it 4-2, Lutcher’s Kristen Roussel grounded out to second but knocked in the second run of the inning.

But St. Charles pitcher Courtney Western retired the final two batters on groundouts and the Comets iced the win.

“We relaxed for whatever reason,” Monica said. “They took advantage of some mistakes we made. We were lucky to not give up any more runs.”

Western (6-2) pitched the complete game, allowing three runs on four hits and striking out nine.

Kadie Levatino went 2-for-2 at the plate for SCC.

St. Charles opened up the scoring with three third innings runs. The first two came off of a single by Western, and the third was scored by Dominique DiCarlo on a Lutcher error.

Lutcher (5-8-1, 0-1) scored its first run in the fourth. The Comets answered with another run in the sixth, on a sacrifice fly by Emily Bourgeois. Katie Reine led off the inning with a single, Brooke Becker bunted her to second, and Megan Louque singled to set up what would be the deciding run.

ST. CHARLES 15, ASSUMPTION 0 – The Comets dropped host Assumption (7-10) Tuesday by the 15-run rule in four innings.

Jennifer Heltz was 3-for-3. Reine went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Becker went 2-for-3 and Western knocked in two runs to help SCC win its eleventh game this year.

Louque (6-0) picked up the shutout victory for St. Charles.