Chapelle’s Kayla Giardina earns New Orleans Athlete of the Month Honor

NEW ORLEANS – Kayla Giardina, the star softball player from Archbishop Chapelle High School, has been selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for April. Monthly athletes of the month have been selected by the Allstate Sugar Bowl Sports Awards Committee since 1957. The athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region in order to be eligible. Giardina is the first Chapelle athlete to win the honor since basketball star Olivia Grayson in March of 2009.

Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month

In the month of April, Giardina pitched and hit Chapelle to the first state championship in program history as the Chipmunks won the LHSAA Select Division I title. That included knocking off the defending state champion St. Thomas More in the semifinals before downing rival John Curtis Christian in the championship game. For the month, Giardina was 7-1 on the mound with a 1.75 ERA. She pitched 52 innings and struck out 68 batters while allowing just 24 hits. Opponents batted just .144 against her. At the plate, Giardina batted .391 with a home run and eight RBI and walked four times. In four playoff games, Giardina pitched 26 innings, going 4-0 with a 1.34 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched. Giardina gave up just 10 hits in the four games combined. Among the eight teams Chapelle faced in April, seven made the state quarterfinals, five made the semifinals and three made state championship games.

In the playoff run, Giardina pitched and helped hit fifth-seeded Chapelle to a 15-0 win over No. 12 Woodlawn (BR), a 5-3 win over District 9-5A rival and No. 4 seed Mount Carmel Academy, a 3-2 win over No. 1 seed St. Thomas More and a 2-1 win over No. 2 seed John Curtis Christian on March 27 in Sulphur. The senior was named the Most Outstanding Player in the state tournament and championship game. Giardina, who has signed with Southern Mississippi, completed her terrific career with the Chipmunks with 811 strikeouts.

Giardina earned the honor over four other high school stars and a red-hot college baseball player.

• Loyola Wolf Pack freshman infielder Jaxon Buratt has had a sizzling beginning to his college baseball career. The product of Dutchtown High School batted an even .500 (28-of-56) in April. He recorded three three-hit games, including a 3-for-4 day against Spring Hill on April 17, and extended his hit streak to 15 games. For the season, Buratt is hitting .424 (72-of-170) with seven doubles, two triples, and one round tripper. He has totaled 36 RBI with a .510 slugging percentage and a .556 on-base percentage. The Wolf Pack, with a 36-17 record, hopes to earn a bid to the NAIA National Tournament when they’re announced on Thursday.
• Kyle Charrier threw a no-hitter to lead eighth-seeded Mandeville to the LHSAA Division I non-select baseball quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory over 24th-seeded Neville on April 26. The senior left-hander (8-2) was spot on as he kept hitters off balance with his change-up. He threw 79 pitches and faced just 23 batters. He registered five strikeouts and walked two. Charrier also singled to open the sixth inning leading to the game’s only run. “What a tremendous outing for Kyle (Charrier). He was lights out and was in command. He’s a bulldog and a tough competitor. He always gives you his best, and that’s what he gave us,” said Mandeville first-year coach Brady Benoit. For the month of April, Charrier was 4-0, allowing just three runs on 15 hits in 20 1/3 innings of work to go with 13 strikeouts. The Skippers were eliminated from the state tournament by top-seeded Barbe in the quarterfinals this past weekend.
• My-Anh Holmes was dominant in the LHSAA Division II Girls’ Tennis Playoffs for The Willow School as she dropped just three games in four matches to earn the state singles championship. A junior, Holmes captured the state title with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over her younger sister and teammate, freshman My-Linh Holmes. It was her third straight state championship. The younger Holmes sister dropped just one set in four tournament matches. The sister act keyed Willow’s team state championship with 17.5 points, easily topping runner-up Vandebilt’s eight points. Holmes also topped her sister to win the regional championship earlier in April.
• Brady Margot a junior first baseman for the Tulane baseball team batted .358 for the month of April collecting 24 hits. with seven doubles and 21 RBI. The big, powerful 6-5, 239-pound slugger has risen to be one of the top hitters in the AAC this season. On the year, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native is hitting .342 with 64 hits, 11 doubles, eight home runs, 44 RBI, and a .529 slugging percentage. His three-year career for the Green Wave has produced 19 home runs, 100 RBI, 169 total hits and 70 bases on balls.
• Sam Vollenweider, a junior for the Brother Martin bowling team, won the boys singles championship at the LHSAA Bowling Championship April 6 at All Star Lanes in Baton Rouge. Vollenweider became the first bowler since the singles championship became a standalone event to roll a perfect 300 game, and his 741 series for three games qualified him third for the final round. He bowled a 268-game in the semifinal match and defeated Cameron Lackey of Slidell 234-178 in the championship. For the day, he averaged 248.6 in five games. One day earlier, Vollenweider helped the Crusaders reach the Division I state championship match for the sixth consecutive time and had a match-best 656 series in the finals against Denham Springs.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 107 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 90-year history. The 91st Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2025. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.