Metro teams battling heat, each other

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 24, 2002

By ROBERT L. LEE

LAPLACE – Despite a heat index soaring into the triple digits, the Lady Bulldogs, Lady Comets and Lady Rebels Metro softball teams battled amongst themselves through the afternoon Friday.

On their home field, the St. Charles Catholic Lady Comets finished their three-game series with no losses, a tie against Lutcher and two wins, versus Lutcher and Riverside Academy.

Riverside Academy’s Lady Rebels gained one victory over Lutcher, but lost their other two games. The first loss came at the hands of St. Charles Catholic, while the second defeat was within few runs of the slightly stronger Lady Bulldogs.

The Lutcher team split their games across every column, with their single win over Riverside Academy, one loss and the one tie with St. Charles Catholic.

“We defeated Lutcher, then tied Lutcher. But it was the game we tied, that I was the most proud of them,” said the Lady Comets’ coach David Lowry. His team was down by eight runs when the chipped their way to tie the score and send the winning run sliding toward home plate. However, the Lady Bulldogs pulled off the play defensively for the out at home plate to end the Lady Comets fiery escapade.

Lowry said the play was physically tough, but it was similar to what would need to have been done during a regular season game, to even the score and push the teams into extra innings. Overall, the only difference leading his offense to suddenly close the scoring gap in the last inning was a little added pressure on the Lutcher defense.

“I think it was just a little different approach at the plate. We wanted to make the pitcher throw more and we did a good job of putting the bat on the ball,” Lowry continued. “We found a way to get on base, then we made the first and second baseman decide where to make the throw.”

He said adding pressure from the plate is especially effective in softball, mainly because the bases are all close, forcing the defense to make decisions quickly. “She who hesitates doesn’t have a chance,” he added.

Riverside Academy’s metro team was struggling with consistency, which is unfortunately common among a young team.

“They try really hard, they’re a hustling team,” explained coach Tanya Teague. “But, once one girl hit the ball, the whole lineup hit.”

She said the team will continue practicing the games’ basics of coverage and hitting to move past being young. Still, she maintains all of the players are doing well and after a moment, described three players who are somewhat standing out. Lady Rebel pitcher Nicole Poirrier earned praise for a “phenomenal job” on the mound and “really showing herself.”

Lady Rebels Jenna St. Amant and Mallori Martin were also given credit for their performances, before Teague said again, “they all really have done exceptionally well.”

The Lady Bulldogs had a high enough turnout for their metro team, it was divided into two teams, with varsity and junior varsity players mixed in evenly. Coach Phillip Creel said each team has at the most four varsity players and each team plays an equal number of games.

From last season, the Lady Bulldogs have only lost two seniors, while a wave of seven players will fill their shoes as seniors in the upcoming season.

“The older players have really been taking the younger ones under their wings and helped them at times when I couldn’t be right alongside them. They have really come together as a team,” said Creel. “The future looks pretty bright, I hope.”

The teamwork didn’t end on defense, during Friday’s matchups, the Lady Bulldogs backed up each other with better hitting than some of their previous games.

Creel said, like the other coaches, he is using the summer games to groom his younger players and allow them more playing experience. “We are not out there to beat up on everybody,” he added.

For the series Friday, June 21, Creel plans to put what will be next season’s varsity team on the field for their first time all together for one or two games.

The team has been revised with infield changes at catcher, first base, second base and short stop, which Creel feels has improved the team.

“We want to see how we will look,” he said.

“We always want to look ahead. After this year we will lose seven seniors, so we will also want to put some younger girls out there this season.”