by RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

SULPHUR — The pain etched on the face of St. Charles coach Ty Monica and his senior players said it all as each shared a final embrace after a Comets softball game.

A Comets rally fell short in the seventh inning as John Curtis advanced to the semifinals with a 3-2 victory, eliminating St. Charles and ending its season.

“We made too many mistakes against a good team,” said St. Charles coach Ty Monica. “We weren’t as ready as we needed to be, and I take the blame for that.”

Curtis led 2-0 entering the sixth inning and added an insurance run in the seventh when Brooke Lee drew a bases loaded walk to force in a run.

“We never felt like it was out of hand,” said Monica. “But that last run just killed us.”

That run would prove vital to the Patriots as the Comets scored twice in the top of the seventh and had the tying run on first. Jaymie Remondet reached on an error with one out, then Karli Terrio tripled to make it 3-1. Katie Terrio flew out, but Heather Orillion delivered a single to make it 3-2. But Curtis starter Katie Brignac got Kati Duhe to ground out to first to end the game.

“I just told the girls, ‘One out at a time,’ said Curtis coach Jerry Godfrey. “You give credit to St. Charles, they never gave up.”

Errors cost the Comets a pair of runs. Lee doubled to lead off the bottom of the first inning and Curtis would score its first run on a passed ball.

Curtis added another in the fifth on Priscilla Burns’ sacrifice fly — SCC committed two errors to lead off the inning, allowing Heather Scully and Pepper Baker to reach.

Curtis left nine runners on base in the game, but scored just enough. It was enough for Brignac, the younger sister of former Curtis superstar Ashley Brignac. She allowed five hits while striking out three. She walked no batters.

Megan Louque also allowed just five hits. She struck out six, walked two and hit one batter.

Chelsea Loupe, Raven Becnel and Emily Triche collected the other three hits for SCC.

The Comets had at least one baserunner on in all but one inning, but Brignac was able to limit SCC from making strong contact.

“She’s pitching beyond her grade level,” said Godfrey of the freshman. “She knows she has a good defense behind her and isn’t trying to do it all herself. If they hit it, they hit it, and if they do, we’ll make plays.”

Monica said that his team had nothing to be ashamed of and lauded its senior leadership this season. SCC brought back just two starters from the Class 2A runner-up team of 2010.

“They were tremendous. We talked about it beforehand,” said Monica. “When you look at seniors, with Megan having to throw every single game, Jaymie coming back from her knee injury, Katie and Jen stepping up as starters … we just came up a little short this year.”