Simon hurls Lady Pios past Catholic High
CROWLEY – Notre Dame’s Taylor Simon hadn’t pitched in a game in almost a month.
So, imagine the surprise Catholic High of New Iberia’s Lady Panthers had when the Notre Dame freshman took the mound for Thursday’s second round playoff matchup.
“Not many teams had a scouting report on Taylor and I thought that would give us an advantage,” said Pios coach Lance Reed. “We’ve had two other pitchers do a great job this season and we were able to keep Taylor on the infield. But she throws with a little more velocity and does a great job of hitting her spots. I thought we could surprise them.”
Surprise them?
You betcha.
In the most important game of the Lady Pios season, all Simon did was toss seven shutout innings, allow only one hit, three walks and strike out six in a dramatic 1-0 victory that sends Notre Dame back once again to the state tournament.
The Lady Pios (21-8) will take on either Brusly or Winnfield Friday at 4 p.m. in the quarterfinals at Sulphur’s Frasch Park.
The trip was made possible by Simon, who kept her team in the game while they struggled to solve an equally-impressive pitching performance by Catholic’s Abigail Hennigan. The only big difference between the two pitchers was the winning run the Lady Pios managed in the sixth, thanks to an Alex Boulet single (only their third) and a sacrifice fly by Kelsey Brown.
“It was a rough day for us at the plate,” said. “We didn’t hit the ball like we are capable and I think it was as much on us as it was what their pitcher did. But we stayed together as a team, made up for it on defense and never gave up.”
The effort had a familiar ring to it.
“That’s been the story all season with this team,” said Reed. “They came together, bonded and made it their mission to get to Sulphur. They wanted to be the team that returned Notre Dame to the state tournament.”
Notre Dame had not been held to three hits in a full game since the second week of the season. But that was all the Lady Pios managed off Hennigan.
The third one was the one