The third-seeded Lady Panthers got a great pitching and batting performance from Jaci Trahan, solid defense in the field and a monster home run from Jennifer Moneaux to blow past No. 14 seed St. Mary’s 9-0 in a Class A regional round playoff game Friday.
The Lady Panthers, who are making their third straight trip to the state tournament, will play South Cameron, a 4-2 winner over South Plaquemines, in the quarterfinals Friday at 6 p.m.
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“It’s very important that we’re going back. I think that all of our girls have really, really, really, really dreamed about winning the state championship and we’ve worked very hard this year. It’s not done yet, we still have a a lot of work to do."
The Lady Panthers proved to be too much for the Lady Tigers, who won their first playoff game ever last week against St. Frederick.
“That’s always tough. In playoff games you need to score early and we couldn’t do that,” said St. Mary’s coach Francis Vienne. “They have a great team over there. I can tell that they worked hard through the offseason.
“We’re happy to be here. We won that first playoff game and that was the first time in St. Mary’s history that they won a playoff game in softball. We were proud that we won that game and we knew it was going to be tough when we came down here. They are just a better team than we are right now, that’s all I can say about them. I hope they do well in the state tournament.”
Trahan started Delcambre’s domination early. After giving up a single to open the game, she got three quick outs to stop the Lady Tigers, then turned on the juice on offense.
Teirrany Peltier led off Delcambre’s first at bat with a single and stole second. After
Tailor Broussard popped up to the catcher, Trahan hit a triple to the gap in center field that scored Peltier and Delcambre led 1-0.
Jenny Bouillion followed with a walk, then Linzy Landry’s single to center scored Trahan and Bouillion to push DHS to a 3-0 lead.
“We had been working a lot on oppo (opposite field hitting) last week and we executed hitting really well today,” said Trahan. “We played awesome defense and worked hard for this game and it showed.”
St. Mary’s went down in order in the second inning and Delcambre’s bats again went to work in the bottom frame of the inning.
Kaitlin Grossie reached on an error, stole second, then took third as Sarah Derise struck out for the first out of the inning. Peltier reached second base on a fielder’s choice as St. Mary’s caught Grossie in a rundown between third and home for the second out of the inning.
Broussard reached second base on another St. Mary’s error to put runners on second and third for Trahan, who drove the ball into right field, plating two runners. Trahan was going to stop at third but was waved home by DHS coach Mark Suire. As she rounded the bag and came home, St. Mary’s catcher illegally blocked the plate to try to tag Trahan out and the umpires awarded Trahan home to complete the three-run, inside-the-park home run.
“I knew that we couldn’t start off with any errors or walks,” said Trahan. “We couldn’t make any mistakes on defense and had to hit the ball on offense.
“Even though I was nervous, I had to relax and hit the ball. I wasn’t trying for a home run but when I got to first base, coach was like go four, go four and I knew I had to run and I just ran.”
Up 6-0 after two innings, Trahan allowed only a second single to Brittany Keyser in the third and a single to Caroline Aviles in the fifth before giving way to Broussard in the sixth. Kellie Nero came on in the seventh to finish the game.
Delcambre had one final three-run outburst in the fifth as Broussard singled, then scored on Landry’s RBI-single to center. Then Moneaux stepped up and went opposite field with a ball that landed right in the middle of the Delcambre students watching the game from behind the right-field fence.
“We prepared for a low outside pitch and I went with the pitch,” said Moneaux. “It felt good.”
For Suire, it was a good win which showed what his team has become capable of doing during this run of success.
“Winning never gets old,” said Suire. “That’s one thing that the kids have gotten into their minds the past couple of years.
“Winning is expected now and that’s what the tradition is now.
“I think right now, and you can tell by the people that were here today, they expect us to do good things and the players expect to do good things and good things happen when people expect the best.”
Hopefully, Delcambre’s best can continue for three more games.
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