BY RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — The ball roared off the bat of Chalmette’s Austin Bergeron and over the left field wall in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday, and in a flash St. Charles Catholic’s 3-0 lead vanished and its victory celebration put on hold — and then some. 

But after four more innings and a lengthy rain delay, St. Charles finally landed a knockout blow in the 11th inning, scoring when Brandon Klibert was hit by a Gabe Robin pitch with the bases loaded for the go-ahead run in a 4-3 victory at Chalmette. 

Klibert pitched a scoreless 11th to earn the save for St. Charles, which won its 20th game — and a key one, at that. A victory over 5A Chalmette (19-10) earns SCC (20-7) the kind of power points boost that it just missed on landing in recent close losses to Brother Martin and Rummel. 

St. Charles coach Wayne Stein said it was an important win for the psyche of his team. 

“That was our first one-run win since the second week of the season, when we beat St. Frederick,” said Stein. “It was good that we could find a way to win it, because if you keep losing these close ones, it can start to mess with your mind. Especially if we’d lost this one.”

And it was hardly a stress-free win, even if it looked for awhile to be close to one. Four Chalmette errors helped SCC build a 3-0 lead and Comets’ starting pitcher B.J. Waguespack was pitching as well as he had all season long — headed into the seventh, Waguespack had allowed just one hit and had struck out nine. 

But after Malik Blaise drew a leadoff walk to begin the bottom of the seventh, then SCC committed its first error of the day on an attempted double play flip to second.  That left two on for Bergeron, who launched a towering shot to left and tied the game on a 3-run home run. 

Until that home run, the only Chalmette hit belonged to Malik Blaise, who led off the game with a single. 

Waguespack and SCC escaped the inning with no further damage and the teams were on to extra innings. 

“B.J. led by example after that home run,” said Stein. “They tie the game and there’s still nobody out, and he gets back to work and goes back to doing what he was before. I feel bad for B.J., to pitch so well tonight to end it with the no-decision. He’s just getting better.”

Said Waguespack, “We’ve played from behind this year. We’ve been in worse positions. It’s nothing new … You just keep battling.”

Mason Bordelon came on in relief of Waguespack in the 8th and pitched three scoreless innings, striking out five and allowing just one hit. Conversely, Chalmette reliever Randy Asevado tossed four scoreless innings after coming on in the seventh. 

Bordelon was originally slated to get the start Thursday, but the Comets elected to go with Waguespack after Bordelon noted some soreness on Wednesday.  But he was ready when called upon. 

“He was typical Mason. He went in and dominated,” said Stein. 

Then umpires suspended play due to rain — though it was only a light rainfall, the Owls turf field was deemed too slippery and potentially dangerous to play on. The delay lasted for one hour and 20 minutes before play resumed in the 11th inning. 

“We just wanted to get it played,” said Waguespack. “There was talk that they’d cancel it, just give both teams a tie … We’d rather take the loss than a tie. At least then we know we went down trying.”

Said Stein, “Nobody in our dugout wanted the tie. We really wanted to stay as long as the umpires would let us in order to get this finished. Our guys were angry after we lost the lead.”

Connor Smith drew a walk to begin the 11th, then Jon Brown bunted him over. Waguespack and Klibert each drew walks to load the bases before Robin hit Kameron Keller with a pitch to force in the winning run.

Waguespack finished with seven innings under his belt, allowing two hits and walking four. He struck out 10. Bordelon (5-2) earned the win.

 

 

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BROTHER MARTIN 6, SCC 5 — The Comets led 4-0 in the first inning, but the Crusaders marched back to take a 6-5 victory on a fifth inning Jarrett Gongora RBI. 

Mason Bordelon and Jon Brown each went 2 for 4, Brown netting an RBI. B.J. Waguespack went 1 for 2 with two RBIs. Connor Western also drove in a run.

Connor Smith, Waguespack and Bordelon each pitched for SCC, Bordelon the most effective, going 1.2 innings with no hits or runs allowed. Waguespack (6-2) took the loss. 

Andrew Boucvalt (2-1) earned the win for Brother Martin. Owen Magee (2 for 3, two RBIs) and Jonathan Parker (1 for 3, two RBIs) led the Crusaders at the plate. 

Brown’s double in the fourth led to a Waguespack RBI single that gave SCC a 5-3 lead. But RBI singles by Magee and Daniel Lahare tied the game at 5-5 before Gongora hit into a fielder’s choice and pushed home a run to give Brother Martin the lead.

The Crusaders’ Conner Fallon earned the save after coming in with two on and one out in the seventh, getting a double play ball to end the game.