Parish diamond prepsters active last week
A trio of baseball/softball tournaments were held late last week and into Sunday. Plaquemine High hosted its annual Sam Distefano Memorial Baseball Tournament, while St. John hosted its Father Jerome Dugas Baseball Tournament. St. John’s Lady Eagles also hosted a weekend softball tournament in Plaquemine.
Due to White Castle High’s participation in the Class 1-A state basketball championship game Saturday evening, weekend diamond tournament reports were sketching by early Monday morning sports section deadline. Reports on the tourney play will be in next week’s sports section.
Here are reports on early week diamond play and scores from the early tourney games:
BASEBALL:
PHS TOURNEY:
Plaquemine High hosted its annual Distefano tournament over the weekend and posted a 1-2 record.
The Green Devils romped to a 16-4 victory over McKinley High to begin play and then they dropped a pair of games, falling 7-1 to False River Academy and 3-0 to Loranger High.
Josh Berthelot posted the mound win over McKinley, while Jarvin Hines suffered the loss to False River and Blake Landry was beaten by Loranger, despite throwing a solid game.
Catcher Josh Falcon got the only two hits in the loss to Loranger, while Julius Maracalin, Orlando Battiste, and Josh Randall were hitting leaders in the tourney games for the Green Devils, who pushed their season mark to 5-5.
PHS 6, CHRISTIAN LIFE 5: Winning pitcher Josh Randall, first-year standout Julius Maracalin, and Ben Cavalier collected two hits apiece to lead the Green Devils to a narrow 6-5 victory over visiting Class 1-A Christian Life Academy early last week.
The victory boosted Coach Cory Alleman’s Green Devils over the .500 mark for the first time in the early season as they moved to 4-3 on the eve of their annual tournament.
Maracalin belted a pair of triples to lead the PHS offense, giving him three in the first seven games. Maracalin was a speedy frosh running back in the fall for the Green Devil football team as is proving to be a key diamond player for Plaquemine High. “He’s got quick, quick hands and quick, quick feet,” noted Alleman about his frosh standout.
The locals had an 8 to 6 edge in base hits, while both teams committed two errors. Joe Alfred led CLA with a home run.
SJHS 2, LIVONIA 2 (SJ TOURNEY OPENER):
The hosting Eagles played 3-A Livonia to a 2-2 tourney time-limit tie in the opening round of action of the Dugas Memorial diamond event last Thursday.
Senior catcher Cole Verret provided the big hit for the Eagle offense with a two-run home run. He plated Trevor Curry in front of him. Curry had a double to get on base. Those were the only two hits for St. John in the tie game that went six innings.
Shea Ourso allowed five hits and two earned runs, but had 11 strikeouts on the mound.
SJHS TOP AHS, BHS IN TOURNEY:
The tourney-hosting Eagles claimed victories over Assumption High and Baker High late Saturday evening in their Dugas tournament.
St. John beat Assumption 3-1 and Baker by a 6-1 score. Reports of the games as well as Sunday’s contest with Mangham High were not in by sports deadline.
WC BASEBALL: The Bulldogs are off to a 3-2 start on the diamond despite missing a handful of returning veterans from the basketball team.
Tyree Bracken, Jonathan Roberts, Quincy Jones, Vance Williams, and Gerad Carlin have been leaders on the diamond club thus far. Veterans Isaac O’Bear and Terrance Taylor will soon join the club with the end of the hoop season.
SOFTBALL:
PHS 13, PORT ALLEN 3: The Lady Green Devils captured their District 8-3A opener with a 10-run rout of neighboring Port Allen early last week.
Returning all-district standout Mallory Perrault led her PHS club to victory with a three-hit pitching effort and a perfect four for four performance at the plate. Perrault pushed her season pitching record to 3-2 with the 8-3A victory.
Versatile senior Candace Tullier continued a red-hot start to the diamond season with her slugging. She had a trio of big hits to spark the victory.
Another veteran continuing some early season slugging was infielder Blaise Sylvester. She also had a trio of key hits in the victory.
Perrault’s pitching helped the PHS girls overcome a trio of errors in the field. The visiting Lady Pelicans matched their hostesses in miscues, while PHS garnered a total of ten hits.
ST. JOHN LADY EAGLES: Prior to their weekend tournament the SJHS girls had a 9-1 overall record that included early District 8-A victories of 14-1 over White Castle High and 18-1 over West St. John.
Kamryn Theriot has been a standout on the mound and at the plate for the Lady Eagles. Senior Maddie Bahry has been a defensive anchor in the outfield, while Jessie Brown and Shelbi Strickland have shown their versatility alternating positions either behind the plate or at shortstop. Third sacker Kaycee Hudson has been a key hitter for the club thus far.
Hudson, Brown, and Bahry are all returning area daily newspaper All-Metro softball players for St. John.
WHITE CASTLE SOFTBALL: The Lady Bulldogs are finally getting their diamond club back to full strength after the basketball season went all the way to the 1-A Final Four semifinal finish.
Coach Shelly Hudson expects her club to show some improvement with the return of veterans Skylar and Shylar O’Bear and Erica Jones to the lineup.
