By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Morgan Nobile’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday capped St. Charles Catholic’s regular season with a victory, a 6-5 win over visiting Covington in a non-district game.

Nobile’s hit scored Lela Hill from second base. Hill had walked earlier in the frame. 

“Morgan had a couple of good at-bat’s over the course of the game and we liked our chances at that point,” said St. Charles coach Ty Monica. “Emily (Triche) walked, and we knew that we were going to have two shots with two of our better hitters coming up in Morgan and Destiny, with a lot of speed on second.”

St. Charles earned the No. 13 seed and is set to face former district rival E.D. White Monday at 4 p.m. in a opening round Class 3A playoff game. St. Charles beat E.D. White 10-8 on Apr. 7.”

Paige Williams went 3 for 4 while Nobile went 2 for 4 for SCC. Brittany Lambert earned the win, going 6.1 innings.

While the Comets earned the win, Monica was less than pleased with the Comets’ total performance. SCC led 5-2 entering the seventh but allowed Covington (7-20) to score three runs to force extra innings. 

“The win was as ugly as a win can be,” said Monica. “We made a ton of mistakes. Tons of baserunning errors, too many walks by our pitchers. We let them have all the hope we could have.’

“It was a win, but that’s all it is. It’s not a confidence booster and it’s not how we wanted to play headed into the playoffs.”

His words rang as something of a “good news-bad news” summary of the past two weeks for SCC: even in the win, he felt his team fell well short of its best, and that game followed a 10-0 loss at top 4A contender Vandebilt Catholic. 

Conversely, the win was St. Charles’ 20th of the season and the Comets (20-8) have won five of their last six games.

“We’ll be able to get a couple of practices under our belt now,” said Monica. “We got back at it (Wednesday) and are looking to right the ship.”

The challenge that now lies ahead for the Lady Comets is an attempt to extend their long streak of trips to Sulphur for the state softball tournament. St. Charles has qualified for the tournament, which begins in the state quarterfinals, in nine straight seasons.

SCC appears likely to draw the No. 12 or 13 seed, he noted, which would mean at least one home game, with a potential trip to play a high seed looming in round two.

But that first game is the only one on the coach’s mind.

“It’s all we’re worried about,” said Monica. “We just watched Berwick play. They (were) a potential first round game for us, and on any given day they’re as good as a number one seed. Class 3A is unbelievable. There’s good coaching, good players, just talent all over the field.’

“Whoever we play, it’ll be a flat out war for us. We’ve got to worry more about ourselves and playing our best ball than the matchup.”