Lady Eagles make road to Sulphur look easy with back-to-back romps

St. John High’s number two-seeded Lady Eagles made the road to Sulphur tomorrow (Friday) for a State Softball Tournament berth look easy.

Coach Cricket Crockett’s Eagles rolled up back-to-back lopsided shutout wins last week to march into a state quarterfinals berth against District 8-1A archrival Ascension CHS tomorrow at noon.

The LHSAA/State Farm State Softball Championships are being held at Sulphur’s Frasch Park. A victory over ACHS would put the Eagles up against the winner of the Catholic of Pointe Coupee-Archbishop Hannan game. A win in that possible semifinals’ game will put SJHS against the winner of the other bracket’s False River Academy-Cedar Creel and Ouachita Christian-Block quarterfinal contest over the weekend.

False River garnered the top seed, but St. John, Hannan, and Ouachita Christian are all considered powerful top-four Class 1-A contenders.

The Lady Eagles turned back hosting LaSalle High Saturday by an 11-0 score to notch the tourney berth. They opened the playoffs with a 17-0 romp over Ecole Classique.

The Eagle girls entered the tourney with an outstanding 28-3 record.

Pitcher Kamryn Theriot led the SJHS girls to the tourney with a two-hit shutout effort against LaSalle. The win boosted her season record to 25-3. First-year shortstop Shelbi Strickland paced the offense with a perfect four for four showing at the plate. Strickland had two doubles and two singles, driving in four runs. Catcher Jessie Brown had a pair of clutch hits and drove in three runs. All three Lady Eagles were standouts in St. John’s 8-1A championship effort earlier in the week at the district’s annual track meet at West St. John High.

SJHS used 15 hits and capitalized on five LaSalle (12-13) errors to score their 11 runs in five innings of play. The Eagles put together scores of five, two, and three runs over the first three innings to open the contest.

FIRST ROUND:

The Lady Eagles routed Ecole Classique 17-0 to advance to the regional playoffs last weekend.

St. John’s girls scored 15 runs in their first at bat and the umpire forced a “third out” situation. Ecole Classique batted a second time and Lady Eagle pitcher Theriot sent them down one-two-third for the second time. St. John went back to bat and tallied to more runs and the game was called at the end of two with the Eagles winning 17-0.

Theriot did not allow a baserunner as she tossed two innings of perfect ball. Offensively, the Lady Eagles used 10 hits and capitalized on seven EC errors.

SJHS sophomore catcher Brown went to bat twice and twice slammed home runs over the left field fence to lead the offense. Kaycee Hudson hit the fence a couple of times and collected a triple and a double. Senior Alexis Ledet hit two doubles off the fence in her two at bats, while senior Francesca Louivere had a triple and a double in her two at bats. Senior outfielders Kathryn D’Albor and Maddie Bahry added key hits, while Theriot, Strickland, and Alana Blanchard also contributed on offense.