By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

DENHAM SPRINGS — It’s been a season of runs for St. Charles Catholic thus far, and the Comets are glad to be back on the upswing.

SCC won its first three games, then dropped its next five. But after a perfect four win outing at this past weekend’s Denham Springs tournament, SCC is on a five-game winning streak.  

“We eliminated the one bad inning,” said St. Charles coach Paul Waguespack. “It just seemed like in every one of our losses, we’d play well and let it get away from us in that one inning. Out of 28 innings (at the Ouachita Christian tournament), we had three really bad ones. Take those away and it’s a great weekend. But you can’t do that… You’ve got to play the whole game.”

“We just got back to basics, concentrating on having better at-bats. We had three good days of practice. It showed in what we did.”

St. Charles (8-5) downed Denham Springs, Walker, Live Oak and Woodlawn over three days last week, beginning with an 8-2 victory over host Denham Springs (9-5).

SCC scored six runs over the second and third innings to seize control of the game, more than enough for pitcher Connor Smith to emerge victorious. He pitched all seven innings and allowed one earned run on four hits and four walks. He struck out seven.

Macky Cortez went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Donnie Savoie also collected two RBIs. Luke Poche and Jeffrey Hall each had two hits.

On Friday, SCC followed that win up with a dominating 14-2 win over Walker.

SCC led 6-0 after three innings and scored four runs in each of the third, sixth and seventh innings.

Chad McNeil and Austin Weber each went 3-for-5, McNeil collecting three RBIs. Savoie was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

McNeil took the win on the mound, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks. He struck out three.

Walker (10-3) committed nine errors in the game, a statistic aided by the fact that the Comets had just three fly ball outs and hit numerous ground balls.

“When you hit ground balls, 15-18 a game, you can win at this level. I truly believe that,” said Waguespack. “They made nine legit errors, and that can happen when you put the ball in play and put pressure on a defense. Anyone can catch a fly ball. We did a good job this weekend of hitting it on the ground.”

St. Charles fell behind Live Oak (8-5) Saturday, 3-0 in the first inning. But the Comets scored two runs in the fourth and then three in the fifth to make up the difference in a 5-3 victory.

Nick Montagut went the distance to earn the win, allowing three runs on seven hits.

Cortez had a pair of RBIs and went 1-for-4. Kerry Waguespack was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

SCC rounded out the weekend with another strong performance against Woodlawn (4-9), breaking open a 3-1 game with five fifth inning runs to collect a 9-1 win.

McNeil went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Weber and Savoie each collected a pair of hits.

David Blakely earned the win, going five innings and allowing one run on four hits.

The Comets return to action Friday at the Lutcher tournament. SCC will play against Lutcher at 3 p.m. Friday, then against Riverside at 9 a.m. Saturday.

SCC concludes the tournament against Catholic-New Iberia later that day at 4:30 p.m.