CCHS Lady Eagles returning to Sulphur

No. 2 Central Catholic may have defeated No. 15 St. Mary’s School by a lopsided 10-1 final in Class 1A regional action, but through 5-and-a-half innings, the Lady Eagles were in a close game.
However, Central Catholic pitcher Megan Landry held St. Mary down long enough and her offense came around in the bottom of the sixth inning to turn a 3-1 advantage into an eventual 10-1 victory.
Now, the Lady Eagles (26-3) will advance to the state softball tournament at Frasch Park in Sulphur next weekend. The Lady Eagles will play the winner of No. 7 Block and No. 10 St. John, who will meet today at 4 p.m. at Block in other Class 1A regional round action.
A year after falling in the Class 1A quarterfinals in 10 innings to eventual Class 1A runner-up Archbishop Hannan in 10 innings, Coach Joe Russo said his squad had some business to take care of this year.
“Hopefully we’re not going to be satisfied with just getting there … hopefully we can win it,” Russo said.
In Thursday’s win, the Lady Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when St. Mary’s Sadie Simmons dropped a pop up by Central Catholic’s Paige Thomas with the bases loaded.
Kelly Russo, who was at third base, came home on the play and beat the throw to home plate.
Central Catholic plated single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Brooke Lipari singled, scoring Russo, while in the bottom of the fifth, the Lady Eagles scored a run when Kimberly Russo came home on a wild pitch by St. Mary pitcher Mackenzie Methvin.
St. Mary (12-14) got on the board in the top of the sixth inning using some small ball coupled with two Central Catholic errors.
With one out, St. Mary speedy leadoff hitter Maddy Matt put a ball in play that Central Catholic’s Kaitlyn Gros couldn’t get a handle on.
Matt stole second base and advanced to third on a ground out by Ragan Hale.
She scored on a squeeze bunt by Lauren Fidelak near home plate and Gros couldn’t field it properly to cut the lead to 3-1.
Coach Russo said he was expecting St. Mary to use small ball to get some of their speedy players on base and put in a special defense for it but never had to use it.
However, he said his squad would have to work on defending the small ball.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Central Catholic had no problems responding.
After Gros reached on an error, Lipari singled to left field and the ball got past the leftfielder, allowing Gros to score, and Lipari advanced to third base.
Hallie Autin followed with an infield single, and Autin as well as Thomas — who reached on a bunt single — advanced to second and third base on an error.
After St. Mary brought back in its original pitcher, Renee Lirette, the Lady Eagles continued their onslaught with back-to-back run-scoring singles by Kimberly Russo and Brittany Longman and a fielder’s choice by Bridgette Swan for an 8-1 advantage.
The Lady Eagles scored their last two runs on a bases-loaded walk to Gros and Lipari’s ground out to shortstop.
“We knew we were going to have to make some adjustments to that style pitching again. … (It’s) good to have a win, but we’d like to start a little bit earlier.”
After surrendering a leadoff single to Lirette to begin the seventh inning, Landry fanned the next three batters, including the last two on called third strikes.
“We played a great game through five (innings),” St. Mary coach Elizabeth Jonson said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our girls, especially with this being my first year. We got a lot to build on.”
In seven innings, Landry surrendered an unearned run on a hit with two walks and fanned 15.
Offensively, Lipari led the Lady Eagles with two singles, three RBIs and a run, while Kimberly Russo had a single, an RBI and two runs. Other top contributors included Longman and Thomas, each a single and an RBI; and Hallie Autin, a single, an RBI and a run.
Lirette took the loss for St. Mary. In five innings, she surrendered five runs on five hits with six walks.
She was one of three pitchers St. Mary used, who combined to surrender nine walks and hit a batter.
Jonson said her squad struggled on the mound this season.
“Honestly, against a good team like that … we couldn’t get it done pitching wise and they just finally caught up to us and started hitting,” Jonson said, noting the team’s No. 1 pitcher was hurt.