Lady Pios crush Clark in playoff opener

CROWlEY – For J.S. Clark’s Lady Bulldogs, the bus ride from New Orleans to Fats Leger Memorial Field was three times longer than it took for their first-round softball playoff game against Notre Dame Monday.

Notre Dame, Class AAA’s No. 4 seed, wasted little time in disposing of the No. 29 seed, scoring 10 runs in both the first and second innings en route to a 20-0, two-and-a-half inning victory.

The game finished up in just about an hour.

The victory sends the Lady Pios to the second round where they will face the winner of Tuesday’s Catholic High of New Iberia-Ursuline contest on Thursday. A Catholic High victory would have the Lady Pios at home while an Ursuline victory would put them on the road with a trip the LHSAA Fast Pitch 56 Tournament on the line.

“I think we played well as a team today,” said Notre Dame coach Lance Reed, whose team improved to 20-8 on the year with the victory. “We came in here and did what we had to do to get out of here early. Just like we’ve done all year, we played our game. We didn’t play down to the competition.”

The Lady Bulldogs (9-5) didn’t provide much competition in the run-rule victory. They sent just nine batters to the plate in three innings. Eight of those nine batters went down on strikes while the other grounded out to shortstop.

Amelia Lavergne picked up the victory on the mound, striking out five in two innings. Charli Leger finished off the three-inning perfect game, striking out the side in the final frame.

Offensively, the Lady Pios’ had a field day. Every starter scored in a first inning that saw 14 batters approach the plate.

Kelsey Brown did most of the damage, going 2-for-2 in the first with two home runs and four RBI. Her first home run was a rare in-the-parker that rolled all the way to the right field wall with two runners on. Her second was a no-doubter that sailed over the left-centerfield wall for a solo blast.

Anna Brown, Meranda LeBlanc and Taylor Simon also had run-scoring singles in the first inning and Hannah Godeaux pushed across a run on a bases-loaded walk.

Charlie Leger and Hannah Miller both recorded two hits in the second inning and accounted for four more runs. Leger singled twice to center, driving in a run on each hit while Miller doubled to right to plate two runs in her first at-bat before singling in her final plate appearance.

Caroline Stewart added a pinch-hit RBI single, Lavergne plated a run on a groundout and Becca Guidry picked up a RBI on another bases-loaded walk.

In all, every Notre Dame player who was available got in the game and contributed either with a hit, an RBI or scored a run, if not all three.

Kelsey Brown finished with two home runs and four RBI while Leger and Miller each had two hits and two RBI. Godeaux, LeBlanc, Stewart and Simon each had one hit and one RBI. Leah Broussard had a triple, Katelyn Smith and Anna Brown each had a single and Guidry and Lavergne each drove in one run.

“You know, if someone would have told me before the season started that we would have 20 wins, with the schedule that we had, I would have told them that they were crazy,” said Reed. “This is just a testament to how hard these girls have worked this year. They have jelled together so well. I have never seen a team this cohesive. Like I told the kids earlier today, they earned that No. 4 seed. It wasn’t just handed to them because of tradition or anything like that. They earned it.”