EDW, C. Catholic fall in state finals

Tracking Glory with Hal Martin
May 14, 2013
Granier earning collegiate attention
May 14, 2013
Tracking Glory with Hal Martin
May 14, 2013
Granier earning collegiate attention
May 14, 2013

Two Tri-parish baseball teams woke up Saturday morning with ambitions of winning the prep baseball state championship.


By nightfall, those dreams had splattered.


Both E.D. White and Central Catholic were sent back home to the Tri-parish area with busses filled with both heartbreak and a runner-up trophy to boot.

The Cardinals dropped a 9-5 game to Parkview in the Class 3A State Finals in Sulphur, while the Eagles fell 4-2 to Mangum in Monroe for the Class 1A State Finals.


E.D. White’s season finished with a 28-5 record. Central Catholic’s year ends with a 24-8 season.

 


Tough pitching halts Eagles in Finals


Central Catholic entered Saturday afternoon’s Class 1A State Finals on a high note.

Just one day before the meeting with Mangum, the Eagles scored a thrilling 8-7 upset over 1A’s top seed Ouachita Christian.


That momentum carried into the first inning of the finals, as the Eagles struck for two runs off Mangum starter Ridge Heisler to take an early 2-0 lead.


Those runs were the Eagles’ only of the game.

“We jumped on ‘em early just like we wanted to do,” Central Catholic coach Tyler Jensen told Nola.com after the game. “We just couldn’t get a big hit throughout the game. We had multiple opportunities.”


With Heisler settled in and getting outs, Mangham’s bats powered the team to the state title.

The Dragons cut the Eagles’ lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning on a single by Cody Turner, which plated Trey Cureington.


Mangham tied the game in the bottom of the third when Dylan Ridgeway hit a solo home run off Eagles’ pitcher Bryson Barbier – a rocket that made the score 2-all.


Once drawn even, Mangham continued its pesky offense in the bottom of the fourth inning, taking a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly by Turner.

They stretched their margin to 4-2 the next inning on a base knock from Garrett Dye.


While the Dragons paper cut Central Catholic one run at a time, the Eagles were being smothered by Heisler, who was flawless after the opening inning of the game.


The Mangham starter allowed just four hits and no walks from innings 2-7.

The Eagles had base runners in the late innings, but they couldn’t string together hits to put together a substantial rally.


With the loss, Central Catholic has now finished as the Class 1A runner-up for two-straight seasons.


Last year, the Eagles fell 10-0 in the finals to Ouachita Christian.

Jensen said he’s proud of the season his team had, but added that losing the final game is never an ideal situation for any coach.

“It’s tough,” Jensen told Nola.com. “It’s the second-straight year, and it doesn’t get any easier. This one was really hard to swallow because of the way the game happened. Losing in the state championship … your season ending, losing seniors – never gets easy.”

The victory marked the first-ever state championship in the history of Mangham’s program.

 

Rare patch of pitching plagues EDW

E.D. White starting pitcher Payton Coddou has been an ace for the Cardinals throughout his entire career with the program.

But in Saturday’s Class 3A State Championship Game with Parkview Baptist, the college-bound pitcher didn’t have his best stuff. The Eagles took advantage and hit their way to the state title.

After not giving up a run as a team since April 16, the Cardinals allowed nine in the game, falling behind early and never finding a way to record in the four-run defeat.

The trouble started in the opening inning for E.D. White.

Cody Daigle and Hayden Nickens played consecutive RBI doubles to cap a four-run first to put the Eagles ahead 4-0.

Coddou’s struggles extended into the second when Parkview Baptist scored three more in a rally that included another double and an RBI triple from Hezekiah Randolph, who finished the game 4-for-4 with two triples – enough to be named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“Payton pitched without his curveball,” Cardinals coach Shane Trosclair told The Advocate following the loss. “He couldn’t find it, he left his fastball up.”

Parkview pushed the game to 9-0 before the Cardinals finally stopped the bleeding and settled into the game.

E.D. White made a late rally to make the game interesting, scoring five runs over the final two frames.

But they couldn’t ever take the lead.

The win serves as a giant exclamation point on a furious second-half rally to the Eagles’ season.

Parkview Baptist played one of the most difficult schedules in Louisiana and was below .500 for most of the season.

Even with a late-season push, the Eagles finished with just a 20-17 record.

For E.D. White, the loss caps another strong season without a state title.

The Cardinals have been close several times in the past decade, but they haven’t won the Class 3A State Championship since 2001.

E.D. White pitcher Payton Coddou fires a pitch during the Cardinals’ opening-round playoff win. Coddou has been among the team’s aces for the past several seasons. But in the Class 3A State Championship Game, Coddou was touched up by Parkview Baptist in the Eagles’ 9-5 win. 

CASEY GISCLAIR | TRI-PARISH TIMES