St. Charles, Riverside look to advance to semis

Published 12:00 am Friday, May 6, 2011

By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — The Class 2A state baseball semifinals could have quite a bit of local flavor next weekend with St. Charles and Riverside both one win away from advancing to the state baseball tournament in Shreveport.

But neither will find the going easy, as a pair of stout obstacles will oppose the neighborhood rivals.

Fresh off of a dominating victory over two-time defending state champion Northlake Christian, Riverside (19-11) travels to face second-seeded Evangel (22-9) today at 2 p.m. Meanwhile, St. Charles (24-11) will stay home to meet up with sixth-seeded Dunham (26-4) at 4 p.m. Monday at Comet Field.

The latter matchup will be a rematch of one that took place on April 13, one that the Comets won 8-7 in come-from-behind fashion.

It was a game that St. Charles coach Paul Waguespack said invigorated his club at the time, in fact spurring it on a day later to score 24 runs in a district win over John Curtis.

“I just thought it was a big win for us,” said Waguespack. “We were down in that game twice and battled back both times. Then we get up on them late and hold off a rally.

“At the time, we weren’t feeling too good about ourselves. But that game showed us that we could win the close ones.”

It is a loss the Tigers likely remember. St. Charles dealt Dunham its fourth loss of the season — the Tigers haven’t lost since, winning their last five games by a combined margin of 56-3. The loss to SCC is also Dunham’s only loss in its last 13 games.

Dunham is led by a pair of stars at the top of its rotation. Ryan Mockler is the team’s ace. The dominant right-hander is undefeated this season with an 11-0 record. Complimenting him is lefty Aaron Johnson, an LSU commitment.

St. Charles has seen Johnson this season, but not Mockler.

“When you’re undefeated at this stage, you’re pretty good,” said Waguespack. “This won’t be an easy task, and we all know that. I’d like to think playing this one at home gives us a bit of an edge.

“But you win with good pitching and defense. They’ve got both.”

But Waguespack has confidence that partially stems from the ace he will almost assuredly send to the hill, Jared Keating. Keating has won both playoff games thus far. After losing his first two decisions of the year, Keating has won his last nine.

“What I like about him, he wants the baseball,” said Waguespack. “He’s excited and enthusiastic about it ,and he’s really throwing it well. We’re swinging the bats well. It should be a great game.”

Riverside, meanwhile, comes off of its most impressive victory of the season — a 15-3 thumping of Northlake Christian on the Northshore. The Rebels tallied 18 hits and nearly clinched things in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule before wrapping it up in the sixth.

“It’s a big-time confidence boost when you go out there and face a guy that’s considered one of the best pitchers in Class 2A and you have that kind of success at the plate,” said Riverside coach Matt White of the Wolverines’ Josh Favaloro, who entered the game at 10-1. “We were told he was the real deal, and they weren’t lying … he was hitting between 87 and 91 on the gun all day.

“But we were locked in, and we teed off. We left a number of runners on base, too, and they made some great plays in the field. We swung it exceptionally well.”

White said part of the improved success his team is having comes from a different approach in hitting practice. Instead of each player standing in the cage and taking a long stretch of swings, each gets three or four then gives way to the next player. Also, the Rebels moved the batting practice pitcher up to better simulate the type of speed they’d be seeing as the playoffs continue.

“It paid off on Tuesday,” said White. “Our guys were really on top of it.”

The pitching challenge will likely be even steeper for the Rebel lineup today. 6-foot-6-inch, 230 pound right-hander Harlan Richter is an intimidating presence on the mound and is coming off of pitching 4.1 innings of no-hit ball to help push Evangel past University High in the regional round of the playoffs. Richter is an Arkansas commitment and someone Riverside batters will have to be at the top of their game to get ahead of.

That said, Tuesday’s performance indicated the Rebel bats are indeed running at maximum capacity.

“Evangel is where we want to be,” said White. “They’re on the map.

“But we can’t go in awestruck. We have done that a few times this year where we’ve played the program as opposed to the team on the field. You have to go out, take it one pitch at a time, just like you would against anyone else.”

Riverside’s Dylan Martin is coming off of a strong performance against Northlake Christian.

Today could be Tate Scioneaux’s turn to start. Scioneaux made it happen with his bat Tuesday with two home runs and six RBIs, and has had a strong season on the mound as the Rebels’ power pitcher.

Both lineups can hit. Evangel boasts a complete lineup where there are no rest periods — it’s ninth hitter hits .370. Three-hole hitter Connor Castellano is hitting .389 with seven home runs and 36 RBIs — numbers Evangel coach Tim Hulett says represents a down year for the Vanderbilt commitment.

“Down for him, but a great year for most anyone else,” said Hulett. “I think a lot of teams tended to pitch around him this season.”

Hulett said he expects to see Scioneaux on the mound and that he expects the right-hander to challenge his hitters.

“He’s a good number one,” said Hulett.

“He’ll come after our guys, and he throws with good velocity. We’ll have to be prepared.”

Riverside is 7-2 in its last nine.

Evangel finished the season very strong, going 14-2 in its last 16 games.