By ROBERT L. LEE

LAPLACE – It’s been a season of three-peats and disappointments for River Parish softball teams. The 2001-2002 season is coming to a close and area teams have either crossed their last home plate, or are preparing to make their metal bats speak as loudly as possible this week.

At St. Charles Catholic High School, the Lady Comets were waiting on Tuesday’s matchup with the Lutcher High School Lady Bulldogs for a shot at first place in district 10-3A. With a win over the Lady Bulldogs, the Lady Comets would have a tie for first and need to play a tie breaker for the first place rights. A loss in Lutcher would leave them in a respectable second place, with a clean shot into the playoffs either way.

Last season, the Lady Comets carved their way through the post season up to the quarterfinals before being sent home. Head coach Michelle Dearmitt said she is looking for her girls to at least return to the quarterfinals and maybe pick up where last year’s team left off.

“I sure hope we can take it one step farther. This year’s team is pretty much the same as last year’s,” Dearmitt explained. “Except for the two seniors we had last year, but we have two seniors again now.”

As with the majority of baseball and softball teams across the three parishes, the Lady Comets began with a rough start while the girls from the basketball team got back into their baseball form.

“They stood strong,” said Dearmitt. “They’re very competitive, take their licks and do what they have to do to get the job done.”

What the team has done is built on their games and practices to compensate for their relative lack of team depth. The Lady Comets dress out only 12 players, two of which being seniors and five juniors to lead the team. Leading from the mound as the lead-off pitcher has been Heather Heltz, with Brittany Vicknair available as the reserve pitcher. Elsewhere on the field, Dearmitt said she has “a couple of players who are ready to fill any position. We just go with the 12 we’ve got. As long we’re playing well, we can compete with any team,” she continued. While the team has made extensive strides to streamline their team into a post-season player, not all of their problems have been resolved. Among their weaknesses, the Lady Comets are looking to improve on their hitting and limit defensive errors which have sprung up at various points. Overall, the Lady Comets’ competitive and collective effort has them with a record of 17-12 for the regular season.

The Destrehan High School LadyCats may not have a secured spot in the post season, but head coach Jamie Cologne explained the team has made improvements over last year’s play. Holding a roughly 4-8 district record, before their last two regular season games, Cologne said she doesn’t mind calling this a rebuilding season. The LadyCats would need to win their last two games and have help from other teams losing. Cologne said she doesn’t expect to make a visit to the playoffs, but said she was expecting her team to win half of their district games.

“The games we lost were a lot closer than last year,” she explained. “Most of our losses this year were by one or two runs. Overall the team has been playing a lot better than last year.

Leading the rebuilding effort for the LadyCats has been their one senior, Melissa Anderson. Anderson has connected with the ball for .325 batting average offensively and had flawless fielding defensively.

LadyCat junior Meagan Stock has also provided upper-class leadership by maintaining a .400 batting average. Elsewhere on the Destrehan team, and especially in the infield, sophomores are the majority.

“For most of them, they are playing their first year as starters,” said Cologne. She said with more time playing together and the added experience, the team should continue to make improvements through next season.

The St. James High School LadyCats are in a similar situation with their first year softball team. Head coach Nicole Stewart decided not to have her team in the running for district honors this season, saying the first year team did not need the added pressure. With the 2001-2002 season in their gloves, the LadyCats have surprised quite a few followers with their unofficial 5-5 record.

“It’s unbelievable to most people here, but not to me,” said Stewart, who insists her small group of 11 girls “have become a softball team.” She explained that a good example of how good the LadyCats have gotten, is they played West St. John High School at the beginning of the season and lost 17-14. The teams met again recently and the LadyCats took the victory 23-7.

The magic behind such a swift improvement, “I made them believe in themselves and made them believe losing is not an option,” said Stewart. She explained she disciplined the team when they lost and they responded well, doing exactly what they needed to do in the next game.

“We’ve improved in every area, like cutting down on the errors,” she added. “In the beginning it was a group of athletes who could do something if you told them to. Now they have become a softball team, and having only 11 girls on the team has actually brought them closer together. We are all really proud of them around here,” said Stewart.

The LadyCats have been relying on four freshmen, which Stewart said have done unbelievably well, one sophomore, three juniors and three seniors this year and expect to pick up a few more players for their effort in district play next season.

The Hahnville High School Lady Tigers clinched the district 6-5A title for the third year in a row, with their almost seamless performance and 20-5 and 12-1 season records.

“We’ve had a great season, I’ve never had a season like this before. This is an excellent group of girls,” said an enthusiastic head coach Angela Beck. “They are very talented, have great spirit and are fun to be around.”

Beck explained some seasons it doesn’t matter how much talent the team has, because the coaches never know exactly how the team is going to show up on the field for each game. With her Lady Tigers this season, also Beck’s first as Hahnville’s head softball coach, she said she was confident the girls would win district and only worried for a moment when the girls dropped their one loss to Terrebonne.

“There’s tough competition throughout this district, it’s not easy to win,” she continued. “But all of my players have stepped up. I don’t look at my field and go ‘Oh we have a weakness here’ or try to hide one player behind another.”

Beck credited Lindsay Yochim, who plays third base, as being a team leader and having excellent fielding and batting skills. She also named pitcher Kelly Watson for doing a great job all year and getting the team out of some bad situations. Beck added that Brittney Simmeux and short stop Courtnie Frickey have also shown improvements and done their best to help the Lady Tigers prosper.

“It’s hard to pin point one player who’s done above and beyond,” said Beck. “I can’t say enough about everyone of the players. They are all hitting well, down to the ninth batter.”

What Beck said has surprised her most about the Lady Tigers, is that they haven’t yet had any serious problems to work through. Every player on the team is helping each other out and simply making the season fun.

Last season, the Lady Tigers advanced to the quarterfinals, but suffered a disappointing loss, which they are looking to correct with this trip to the playoffs.

The Lutcher High School Lady Bulldogs are focused on finishing their season undefeated, before grasping either first or second place in district 10-3A.

“It’s very difficult to go undefeated and we have a huge game with St. Charles Catholic Tuesday,” said head coach Helen Funk.

The last time Lutcher played the Lady Comets, the game was determined in the 10th inning by one Lady Bulldog run.

Funk explained a few of her girls are coming out of hitting slumps and taking on leadership roles, especially during the last few weeks.

“Our level of fielding has increased and our errors have reduced tremendously over the last two weeks,” she continued.

With their current 20-11 and 5-0 records, Funk and the Lady Bulldogs are sure of a spot in the post season and are confident they will make the trip worthwhile.

“We have to make 100 percent of the simple plays, execute with timely hits and sacrifice bunts and we will be successful through the playoffs,” urged Funk.