Strong start leads Brusly over SCC

Published 11:45 pm Tuesday, May 1, 2012

By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

SULPHUR — Finally in the midst of the charge they were looking for, the St. Charles Comets came alive in a sixth inning rally in Friday’s Class 3A quarterfinal game with rival Brusly.

But in the end, the three runs in the inning allowed by the Panthers and pitcher Carli LeBlanc would not be enough to derail their playoff run. Brusly tacked on another run in the seventh and held on for a 7-4 victory, ending the Comets’ season.

Brusly advanced to the semifinals, where the Panthers fell to eventual state champion Buckeye.

Brusly scored four runs with two outs and led 6-1 after four innings.

“I felt like it was ours to win,” said St. Charles coach Ty Monica. “We scored early and I thought we had them where we wanted them. But we kicked a sleeping dog. You can’t give that team extra outs.”

St. Charles (23-6) scored first, leading 1-0 after a double to deep left by Chelsea Loupe scored Kati Duhe, who reached by drawing a walk.

Brusly (29-4) answered in the second inning after Loupe got the first two Panther batters of the frame to fly out. Shelby Fleming singled to right and Madison Laprarie walked. Chloe Richard’s ground ball ended in disaster for St. Charles when an error on a throw to first resulted in two runs for Brusly. Akiya Thymes pushed another run across on an infield single.

Kelsey Parkee and Chloe Richard each notched infield singles in the bottom of the fourth with one out before Thymes singled down the leftfield line to make it 4-1. Jada Cobbs single, dumped into right, made it 5-1, and Shelby Willis plated Brusly’s sixth run on a groundout.

Brusly collected five infield hits overall.

St. Charles pushed back in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs after a leadoff walk by Loupe and singles by Destiny Wesley and Raven Becnel.

Karli Terrio made it 6-2 when her infield single scored Cori Millet from third. Brusly answered defensively by making a play at home when it caught Wesley at home plate after a passed ball, then again when third baseman Lanesha Taylor made an impressive diving catch on a line drive by Heather Orillion.

Jessica Mire hit a shot to center that plated two more runs and made it 6-4, but LeBlanc ended the inning on a strikeout.

“That gave us more confidence,” said Loupe of the rally. “It gave us what we needed and we played with a little more intensity.”

Back to back hits by Brusly in the sixth by Cobbs and Willis, the second a double, pushed Brusly’s lead to 7-4. Loupe drew a two-out walk in SCC’s half of the seventh, but wouldn’t score again.

“We knew this would be a dogfight,” said Brusly coach Beau Bouvier.

“We split with them this year. Our saying was, let’s put the gloves on. It’s time for round three. We went at it punch for punch, and fortunately we landed a few more.”

The concluded SCC’s sixth straight trip to Sulphur.

“Not many senior classes can say that their reached the Mecca of high school softball in all four years,” said Monica. “You can never take that away, or take it for granted. These girls accomplished a lot.”