Lady Hawks repeat; AOL, St. Charles fall short

    Three significant things happened last weekend at the “Fast Pitch 56” state high school softball championships that affected three local Catholic schools entered in the championship tournament.    
    Archbishop Hannan’s Lady Hawks made their own breaks and won a second consecutive Class 1A title.
    All the breaks were falling in place for the Academy of Our Lady until the semifinal round, and the Penguins fell short of a berth in the Class 4A finals for the second time.
    And St. Charles Catholic had few breaks go its way and was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of Class 3A play.
    The two-day tournament was played at Sulphur’s Frasch Softball Park, an eight-field complex of artificial and natural turf fields.
    Of the 12 local Catholic schools that made the 56-team tournament field, Hannan, AOL and St. Charles were the sole survivors to earn a spot in the quarterfinal round.
Lady Hawks prevail
    Coach Becky Lambert was cautiously optimistic of her Hannan team’s chances of successfully defending its 1A title despite the loss of two valuable seniors, Kayla Rebouche and Natalie Powell.
    But the nucleus of the 2011 Lady Hawks that won the school’s first title returned and played the game at their best.
    In three tournament games, Hannan’s bats sawed through opposing pitchers’ offerings and covered what few mistakes the Lady Hawks committed.
    In three games, Hannan outscored Westminster (6-1), Ouachita Christian (5-1) and Catholic High of Pointe Coupée  (10-2) by a total of 21 runs to 4.
    While Maddi Shelton shut down opposing batters from the mound, Hannan’s hitters were hot, including Sydney and Meagan Finch, Kim Nilsson, Victoria St. Philip, Brook Laigast and Dallas Hebert, voted the Outstanding Player.
    The 10-2 win in the finals was partially the product of an unfortunate injury to Catholic’s top pitcher, Lauren Davis, who suffered a knee injury while sliding into second base in a 3-2 semifinal round win over Opelousas Catholic. Hannan batters found the two backup pitchers easy prey.
    The Lady Hawks return nine players for the 2013 season, with hopes of three-peating.
Penguin power
The Academy of Our Lady had reached the tournament semifinal round  for the first time in its fie-year history, but Archbishop Blenk, one of the schools which merged to form the academy,  was a semifinalist in 2006. Blenk lost to Vandebilt Catholic, 1-0.
    But third-year head coach Ginger Dilworth    has made the school competitive at the state level.
    An 18th seed, AOL showed its ability in the regionals when it eliminated No. 2 Alexandria, 5-3. The breaks continued to fall the Penguins’ way as the tournament progressed.
    While AOL was beating Northwood, 4-0, the No. 3 seed Neville was ousted by No. 11 Leesville. At the same time, Teurlings Catholic upset the No. 1 seed, Vandebilt, 8-4.
    As the semifinal round got underway with most of the top seeds sent home, AOL was looking for a rematch with Belle Chasse in the finals. The two had split their District 9-4A meetings, Belle Chasse winning, 1-0, then AOL gaining revenge, 6-5, to share the district title.
    But with all the breaks, the Penguins lost an early lead against Leesville and eventually fell, 3-2. AOL scored runs in each of the first two innings but was unable to challenge the plate again. Leesville  took advantage of two AOL errors to pull out the victory in the eighth inning.
Lady Comets fall
    After shutting out West Feliciana, 6-0, and E.D. White, 2-0, in early playoff rounds, St. Charles Catholic faced and lost to Brusly, 7-4, a team with which the Lady Comets shared the District 7-3A title.
    After spotting SCC a one-run lead, Brusly ripped the Lady Comets for 11 hits. The Lady Panthers scored three runs in the second and fourth innings to eliminate SCC, the tournament’s No. 7 seed.
    But the Lady Comets (25-6)  went out swinging. Although behind, 7-1, through five innings, Chelsea Loupe, Raven Becnel and Karli Terrio each crossed the plate in a final effort to rally back.