MCHS ends 2nd-round drought with 11-1 win

It started with a bang and ended with a bounce to get Morgan City over a hump and into the second round of the playoffs.
The Morgan City Lady Tigers came out firing early on offense en route to an 11-1 run-rule victory against South Terrebonne in five innings and into the second
round of the playoff for the first time since the 2009 season.
“It was a big deal for us,” Morgan City coach Tamara Keller said. “I know it’s been a team goal for us since I’ve been here.”
The Lady Tigers scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning via a two-run home run by Celest Williams and a two-run single by Maddi Rivere.
Later in the game, with Morgan City ahead 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth, the Lady Tigers put the game away with a run-scoring double by Williams, followed
by a three-run, walk-off home run by shortstop and Grambling State University signee Brandi Ingram to end the contest.
On Ingram’s home run, the bounced off the top of the fence before falling out the park.
“I’ll take that. I’ll take it all day long,” Keller said of the bounce off the fence. “I have faith in her. Obviously, Brandi, she’s been our heart of the lineup the whole season, and she’s our best hitter so I knew she was going to put a good swing on that.”
Ingram finished 1-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs and a run.
The home run was her sixth of the season and the team’s 19th of the year.
Williams has three home runs this year.
South Terrebonne coach Scott Pellegrin said, “The first thing I’m going to say is I’m upset about how it ended but I’m not upset about where it ended. We
hadn’t been to the playoffs (since 2011). I took over three years ago. One-win season before that year, and we’ve just progressed every year. Very young team. One senior on the team, so we’re looking to do the same thing next year even better.”
While South Terrebonne threatened in the top of the first, putting runners on second and third with two outs, Morgan City’s Tyler Hebert ended the threat when she got Lexie Ruiz to ground back to her.
“I think if we’d have got at least one of those across, it may have … set the tone,” Pellegrin said. “It may have changed something.”
Keller said Hebert was struggling a little early in the game.
“She hasn’t thrown in a while,” Keller said. “Everybody’s been in the gym the last couple days, and so I was worrying about us kicking off the rust a little bit but we showed up.”
Later, in the top of the third, South Terrebonne (14-13) pushed across its lone run.
South Terrebonne pitcher Lauren Cavalier doubled to deep right field, and two batters later, Cavalier’s courtesy runner scored on Claire LeBlanc’s single to centerfield to make the score 4-1.
After Morgan City recorded the second out of the inning via a fielder’s choice, Ruiz singled to centerfield. A baserunner came home on the play and
Morgan City’s relay from the outfield to Morgan City catcher Scottie Metrejean was in time to get her for the third out of the inning.
Metrejean held onto the ball despite a hard collision, and the game was stopped for a while so training staff could attend to Metrejean.
“Scotti made a great play on that,” Keller said. “We practice it every day, so they went through it and they made the plays.”
The Morgan City freshman stayed in the game despite the collision at home plate.
Pellegrin said that last out in the top of the fourth inning was another key moment in the game.
While Pellegrin said his team hit well, they just couldn’t manufacture runs.
“They’re just a good team,” Pellegrin said of Morgan City. “There’s absolutely no shame in losing to a team like this.”
In the bottom of the third, Morgan City plated two runs via a sacrifice fly to left field by Rivere and a single to left right field by Brandi Albarado.
Morgan City added another run in the bottom of the fourth via Kennedy Hebert’s single to left field.
Top contributors for Morgan City included Williams, 2-for-3, a double, a home run, three RBIs and three runs; Albarado, 2-for-3, an RBI and a run;
Kennedy Hebert, 2-for-3, a run; Tyler Hebert, 2-for-4, two runs; and Mattie Rivere, 1-for-3, two RBIs.
On the mound, Tyler Hebert earned the win. In five innings, she surrendered one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts.
In the loss, Cavalier pitched 4.2 innings and surrendered 11 runs — six earned — on 12 hits with two walks and one strikeout.
Offensively, Cavalier finished 1-for-2 with a double, while Logan LeBoeuf was 1-for-3 with a double for South Terrebonne.
Morgan City (16-10) now will face the winner of No. 11 Plaquemine and No. 22 Bastrop in Class 4A regional round action.
Plaquemine and Bastrop will play today.