Three parish teams fall in the baseball playoffs

St. Amant was the only team from the parish that was able to play their way into the quarterfinals this year. Three other squads were forced to taste the bitter flavor of defeat much sooner than they had hoped.

The Gators' district foe East Ascension was able to squeeze into the playoffs as a No. 30 seed after a trying year where they only finished 15-19. However, a late push that saw them winning four of their last five games--including a 6-3 win over Catholic--earned them a spot.

Obviously, the downside of having to settle for such a low seeding is having to play a powerhouse in the opening round. There was no exception for the Spartans.

They were forced to play No. 3 Brother Martin, a team that went 28-5 and beat them by a combined score of 30-7 in their two meetings during the regular season.

Their third encounter in the playoffs' opening round wasn't so different. The Crusaders cruised 9-1 to set up a second-round matchup with No. 14 Denham Springs.

As for Dutchtown, their season ended with a second straight loss to parish and district rival St. Amant.

The 25-9 Griffins headed into the postseason as the No. 15 seed and district champions. Their only loss within the league was a 13-1 beatdown from the Gators late in the season.

However, in the teams' two meetings prior to that game, Dutchtown had won easily by scores of 13-5 and 14-2.

This time around, whatever mojo St. Amant gathered from their late-season win kept going strong as they upset the Griffins 8-4.

The Gators jumped on top of them 4-0 and eventually led 5-1 in the fifth.

Dutchtown finally chipped away at the lead and cut it to 5-3 just to see St. Amant explode for three runs in the seventh to escape with the playoff win.

The Griffins' ace Cole Stapler was dealt only his second loss of the season.

From the plate, Mason Nickens went 2-3 with an RBI, Grant McCrory went 1-3 with two runs batted in and Robbie Podorsky went 2-4.

And in the 1A division, Ascension Catholic snagged a No. 20 seeding on the strength of a 15-15 regular-season record.

They drew a first-round matchup with No. 13 Oberlin and pulled the upset 5-3.

The win pushed them to the second round for the second straight year. It's there that they met with the fourth-seeded team in the state in Oak Grove. The Bulldogs fought valiantly and gave them everything they wanted--pushing them to an extra inning. But in the end, Oak Grove survived by a score of 4-2 and advanced into the quarterfinals

That set up a huge matchup with No. 5 Central Catholic.