Central Catholic overcomes two-day rain delay to beat Grand Lake

LAFAYETTE — Central Catholic successfully weathered a two-day delay due to storms and navigated through Grand Lake en route to the Class 1A baseball quarterfinals.
Now, the Eagles will travel to north Louisiana to get their shot at a creek called Cedar.
Central Catholic scored three runs via two Grand Lake errors in the bottom of the fifth inning Monday en route to a 5-3 victory in second-round action at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s M.L. Tigue Moore Field.
The game, originally scheduled for Amelia on Saturday, was halted before it even began as rain washed away any hopes of playing Saturday and the Eagles couldn’t get the game in Sunday, either.
They found out Monday morning they would be able to play Grand Lake at ULL’s turf field.
Central Catholic coach Tyler Jensen said a lot of his players are older and have to be able to handle situations that aren’t always ideal. He said, simply put, sometimes players just have to mature.
“I hear some guys yelling from the dugout ‘be a leader’,” he said. “You just got to step up and get it done, and we had a couple guys do that for us.”
On the opposing side, Grand Lake Coach Chance Mistric said coaches discuss with players about being mentally tough all the time.
“The game of baseball is mental,” he said. “You can ask anybody in the world, and they’ll tell you a baseball game is mental. It’s a game of failure. It’s cliché. We hear it all the time, but we teach our kids to be mentally tough.”
With Monday’s win, Central Catholic will return to action Thursday at 6 p.m. when it travels to face Cedar Creek, the No. 9 seed. The Eagles were forced to travel to Ruston after the Cougars pulled off the mild upset of No. 8 St. Martin’s Episcopal, 8-3.
As Monday’s game, Jensen agreed it wasn’t pretty but said Grand Lake had something to do with it, too.
“They’re really well coached, really scrappy,” Jensen said. “It was everything I heard. Their pitcher did a really good job changing speeds. We didn’t play up to our capabilities all the way around, but for the most part, a lot of that had to do with them and the things they did.
“I was proud of our guys to get some big hits,” Jensen said. “We had some unfortunate things happen throughout the game. I won’t go too much into that, but we overcame it and we found a way to win the game.”
The teams were locked in a 2-all tie heading into the bottom of the fifth inning when the Eagles extended their lead.
With one out and runners on first and second, Central Catholic’s Thomas Garber grounded into a fielder’s choice at second base, but the throw to first for an attempt at a double play was errant and Stefano Guarisco came around to score.
Mitchell Lemoine singled to right field and courtesy runner Bryce Grizzaffi advanced to third base and Lemoine to second base on the throw to third.
Both came around to score one batter later when the Grand Lake shortstop’s throw to first base on a ground ball by Gregory Leger was high and wide of the first baseman for a 5-2 lead.
Grand Lake didn’t go away, though, as they loaded the bases in the top of the sixth after Leger walked Brandt Sonnier, hit Tyler Lavergne and after striking out Kade Delcambre, walked the next batter.
Central Catholic then turned to Blake Hidalgo in relief. After striking out Joey Cavaloski, the first batter he faced, Grand Lake scored a run when Hidalgo’s pickoff attempt went past first base.
However, Hidalgo escaped any more damage as Brennan Bonsall flew out to center field for the third out of the inning.
Hidalgo retired Grand Lake in order in the top of the seventh, striking out two of three batters.
“Blake’s been clutch all year,” Jensen said. “He hasn’t pitched his best lately, but earlier in the year, he was lights out, and it was only a matter of time before he and (Gregory) Leger decided to really step up and really pitch well.”
Jensen said Leger has pitched well lately.
“I told both of those guys, if we can get this going forward, we have as good a shot as anybody.”
Leger earned the win. In 5.1 innings, the Central Catholic starter surrendered three runs — two earned — on four hits with six walks, two hit batters and six strikeouts.
In 1.2 innings of relief, Hidalgo surrendered no hits and fanned three.
In the first inning, Grand Lake pushed across a run. Leger walked leadoff hitter Bonsall, Alex Guillory reached on an error when first baseman Lemoine dropped a ball on a throw over from third baseman Drake Angeron and Kyle Delcambre, the next batter, laid down a bunt single that Bonsall came home to score on.
“That was the goal: To put as much pressure on them as possible,” Mistric said. “We’ve been really good offensively all year long. … They’re No. 1 for a reason, and we knew we were going to have to put pressure on them and continue to put pressure on them. Make them make mistakes.”
The Eagles got out of the inning, however, via a double play. After Sonnier singled to right, Central Catholic outfielder Adam Dupuis fielded the ball and threw to catcher Thomas Garber who dove to tag the runner out. He then got up and threw to shortstop Samuel Guarisco at second base to pick off Sonnier attempting to steal second base.
Central Catholic took the lead for good in the bottom of the second as Leger reached on a two-base error by Grand Lake’s leftfielder near the left field wall, Leger’s courtesy runner, Brooks Thomas, advanced to third on Patrick Barron’s bunt single down the third-base line, and both scored on Dupuis’ double to right field for a 2-1 Central Catholic lead.
“I think we wound up giving them four out of the five runs they scored on errors, and that was the turnover of the game,” Mistric said.
Grand Lake tied the score at two in the top of the fourth on a squeeze play when Kade Delcambre laid down a bunt that brought home a Grand Lake runner who avoided Garber’s tag.
Kyle Delcambre suffered the loss. In five innings, he surrendered five runs — three earned — on six hits with four walks, one hit batter and two strikeouts.
Kyle Delcambre led Grand Lake with a 2-for-4 performance with an RBI, while Kade Delcambre also had an RBI.
Dupuis led Central Catholic with a 2-for-3 performance with a double and two RBIs. Other top hitters included Barron, 2-for-3 with a run; and Leger, 1-for-3 with an RBI.