CCHS rolls past St. John 9-1

The No. 2 seed Central Catholic Lady Eagles took what No. 10 St. John of Plaquemine gave them while also manufacturing more runs on their own in an easy 9-1 win in Class 1A quarterfinal action at the state softball tournament at Frasch Park Friday.
St. John committed seven errors, while Central Catholic collected nine hits in the contest.
On the mound, Central Catholic’s Megan Landry earned the win. In seven innings, she surrendered a run on four hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts.
“Megan had a strong performance with 11 strikeouts. She only gave up one walk. We … had some good defensive plays and we hit the ball, so it came together for us today,” Central Catholic coach Joe Russo said.
While St. John pitcher Kyndall Guillory escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first inning with a strikeout of Gee Garrett and induced a groundout by Kaitlyn Gros, the Lady Eagles would get on the scoreboard in four of the next sixth innings, including three runs apiece in the third and sixth innings.
The Lady Eagles began the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Brooke Lipari, who had reached on an error by St. John shortstop Shelbi Strickland, advanced to second base on a passed ball and later scored on a throw past third base into left field.
Central Catholic scored three more runs in the bottom of the third inning and two more in the bottom of the fourth for a commanding 6-0 lead.
While St. John loaded the bases in the top of the sixth inning, they managed just one run out of the inning.
After Gracie Trahan led off the inning with a double, Strickland grounded out to third base, advancing Trahan to third base.
She scored on Guillory’s single to cut the deficit to 6-1.
The Lady Eagles plated their final three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
After Landry led off the inning with a single to centerfield, Garrett, who had earlier doubled, connected on a lazy high fly ball that cleared the left field fence for a two-run home run and an 8-1 advantage.
Gros then walked and after Guillory got Lipari to strike out, Brandy Landry’s groundout to third base plated Gros for the final margin.
Garrett led the Lady Eagles with a 3-for-4 performance with two doubles and a home run, while Landry was 3-for-4.Mayweather escapes to fight another night