Lady Comets a game away from state tournament after dominating first-round victory

BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

BATON ROUGE-Survive and advance.

One down, three to go.

Thanks to a new-found intensity, the Lady Comets of St. Charles Catholic defeated West Feliciana, 11-5 in the bi-district round of the Class 3A state playoffs Monday afternoon.

St. Charles Catholic advances to take on the winner of the Newman/Pearl game. Game-time is tentatively set for 4:30 Friday afternoon at Lady Comet field with the winner advancing to the state tournament in Sulphur.

Falling behind their previous two opponents early, St. Charles Catholic jumped out to an early 2-0 first-inning lead thanks to a pair of Lady Saint errors.

After West Feliciana cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second, the Lady Comets all but put the game away scoring four runs on three hits in the third inning.

After back-to-back singles from Bridget Millet and Mary Clement, Felcia Taylor’s fielder’s choice put runners on first and second.

Power-hitting designated player Lauren Coniglio lined a shot into left field, scoring the fleet-footed Clement.

Taylor would score one batter later on an infield single by left-fielder Kayla Rebaldo.

A single by Addy Reine, a walk to Brittany Marse and a fielder’s choice by Angelle Cupit once again loaded the bases.

Paige Braud picked up the painful RBI, getting hit by a pitch to finish out the Lady Comet scoring in the big third inning.

After Clement shut out the Lady Saints in the bottom of the inning, St. Charles Catholic continued their scoring barrage, pushing across three runs on only one hit.

Two insurance runs were added in the final two innings thanks to a monstrous homerun by Coniglio and an inside the park homerun by the speedster Clement.

Coniglio finished the game 2-4 with a pair of runs driven in.

“I first off want to thank God, “Coniglio said. “We were definitely excited to get a lead like we had. “It gave us a lot of confidence to go into the next round of the playoffs. We have a lot of confidence that we could do it again since we already one in round one. We know we can definitely do it in round two.

“The pitch I hit out was a fastball and I think it was on the inside corner. I wasn’t trying to hit it real hard, I was just trying to get a piece of it and It just went out the park. We have to jump on opposing teams early.”

Rebaldo also had a solid game, going 3-4 at the plate with a run driven in.

“As a team we were just really focused,” Rebaldo said. “We played as a team and we were ready to go out there and do our work.

“It doesn’t matter how, you just have to try and get on base. You have to do whatever you can.”

Clement finished 2-5 with a homerun and a run driven in.

She also picked up the win in the circle after one of her best performances of the year, allowing only three earned runs on seven hits, striking out four and walking only three.

As any pitcher would, the junior right-hander said she enjoyed pitching with a lead.

“It is definitely more comfortable,” Clement said. “You can focus on more getting it to where you need to and you know your defense is going to back you up, especially if you are up that much. You know that there is a lot less pressure on yourself and your defense and they did well.

“Our team is very high-spirited and whenever we get together for a long period like the bus ride, I really think that helps us out a lot.”

Lady Comets Head Coach David Lowry said he was impressed with his team’s intensity from the start of the game against West Feliciana.

“We just focused in a lot more tonight,” Lowry said. “We concentrated on every pitch, every swing of the bat, focused on a pitch at a time. We knew if we lost focused for a nano second, it could get away from us.”

NOTE: DUE TO DEADLINE RESTRAINTS, WE WERE UNABLE TO INCLUDE RIVERSIDE’S FIRST ROUND GAME. LOOK FOR EXTENDED COVERAGE IN SATURDAY’S EDITION OF THE L’OBSERVATEUR SPORTS SECTION