St. Charles Catholic advances to Division II baseball title game with 5-2 win over St. Thomas More

Been there, done that.

St. Charles Catholic is one of the consistently best baseball programs in Louisiana but remains perhaps the best program in the state to never win a state title.

The Comets are again on the doorstep of ending that ignominious distinction.

No. 6 St. Charles Catholic never trailed and scored three runs in the decisive sixth inning to break a tie and went on to a 5-2 victory over No. 2 St. Thomas More at McMurry Park in Sulphur Sunday.

St. Charles Catholic scored twice in the top of the second inning on a pair of hits, an error and a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead against Cougars starter Drew McDaniel. St. Thomas More tied it in the bottom of the second against Comets starter Kaile Levantino on an RBI by Luke Richard before Will Cryer scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

It stayed that way until the top of the sixth inning when St. Charles Catholic came through with the winning rally.

Joe Chiarella doubled to deep center, scoring Nick Lorio to make it 3-2 before Caleb St. Martin drove in a second run with a squeeze bunt that landed past first base just inside the line to make it 4-2 and another successful push bunt by TJ Lassiegne plated another run and made it 5-2.

Levantino (9-3) picked up the win while McDaniel took the loss for STM (31-9). Jason Bosco added an RBI for the Comets.

Comets coach Wayne Stein was not surprised at how well Levantino performed under pressure.

“We put him in a bunch of binds, he just doesn’t get rattled,” Stein said. “He’s been our guy all year. He threw real well last week and we lost 1-0 to Teurlings Catholic. He has been very consistent. He just pounds the zone. We can always count on him.”

St. Charles Catholic (30-8) is on to the state championship game for the eighth time in school history and the first time since 2016. The Comets will take on top seed University High. The Cubs blanked district rival and fifth seed Parkview Baptist 4-0.

“It’s the seventh title game I have been involved with, one as a player, four as an assistant coach and one as a head coach,” Stein said. “We had one appearance that I was not part of. I don’t want the kids to get caught up in that. I just want our kids to play well. Whoever plays best at noon on Tuesday wins.”