Charter, St. Joe fall in softball semifinals; play in baseball quarterfinals this week

Although the Avoyelles Public Charter Lady Vikings were able to upset the No. 2 Class AA team in the playoffs, there wasn’t enough of that old Norse magic to slay the Lady Dragons from Mangham.

The No. 3 Mangham squad eliminated APCS, 4-3, on April 26.

The Lady Dragons flew into battle against the No. 4 Kinder Lady Yellowjackets to take a 9-8 victory and claim the state Class AA softball championship in the Allstate Sugar Bowl state softball championships at Frasch Park in Sulphur.

Kinder eliminated the Bunkie Lady Panthers in the quarterfinals, 3-0.

St. Joseph’s Lady Eagles were shot down by the No. 1-seeded Claiborne Christian Lady Crusaders, 16-1. The game was called in the 5th inning under the “mercy rule.”

Claiborne Christian went on to defeat No. 2 Northside Christian, 18-15, to take the Division V championship.

The Lady Eagles beat Runnels High, 16-2, to earn its shot at Claiborne in the semifinal game.

“Our goal for this year was to reach the semi-finals, and we achieved that,” St. Joe Coach Kenny Knight said. “We are a young team. We had a 7th grader, Maddie Dupuis, at pitcher. We improved over the year.”

Knight said his team will lose only one senior, Abbi Gremillion, who was “a great team leader for us this year. She kept the young girls straight.”

The Lady Eagles finished the year with an 11-15 record.

“For our age and experience level, we over-achieved,” Knight added.

BASEBALL PLAYOFFS

In the boys baseball playoffs, No.7-seeded Avoyelles Charter won the first two games in a three-game series with Pine.

The Vikings won the first game on April 26, 7-6. The Charter 9 blasted the Raiders, 21-0, the next day to end the series and advance to the quarterfinals to face the No. 2-ranked Doyle Tigers this Friday and Saturday.

Bunkie, the parish’s other team in the AA playoffs, lost its first two games of a three-game series with Many to end its playoff dreams.

The Tigers won the April 26 game, 15-9, and took an 8-5 win the next day.

St. Joseph plays the No. 1-ranked Claiborne Christian Thursday in the Division V tournament.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl State Baseball Championship Tournament will be held at McMurry Park in Sulphur with the semi-final and final games in all classifications. The semifinal games will be played May 8 and the championships will be played May 10.