St. Paul’s, Covington, Ponchatoula grab District 6-5A wins

Area Prep Baseball Report for Sunday, April 11

It figured to be a low scoring, good matchup with a pair of aces going against each other Saturday night in Mandeville.

It did not disappoint.

St. Paul’s scored a run in the sixth inning to edge Mandeville 3-2 in District 6-5A action Saturday.

The Skippers took a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning before St. Paul’s tied it with a run in the top of the second. The Wolves took a 2-1 lead with a run in the top of the third. Mandeville tied it with a run in the bottom of the fifth before the Wolves came up with the game-winner in the sixth.

S. Spalitta paced St. Paul’s with two hits, M. Russo had a hit and an RBI and K. Anderson drove in a run for the Wolves.

Sophomore Kade Anderson, an LSU commit, went the distance, allowing just five hits while striking out 13 to pick up the win.

Senior Brenton Gant had an RBI double for the Skippers while freshman Brody Stevens added an RBI single for Mandeville.

Aidan Grab took a tough loss, pitching a complete game, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits. Grab walked two and struck out three.

St. Paul’s (17-7, 6-3) completes its series with the Skippers at Mandeville (15-12, 6-3) Tuesday at 6 p.m.

In eight innings, Covington edged Slidell 7-6 at home.

Mason Estrada drove home the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Covington took a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first before Slidell scored three runs in the top of the second inning to make it 3-1.

The Lions cut the deficit to 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the second before the Tigers scored three more runs in the top of the third and grabbed a 6-2 lead.

Covington fought back with two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and another run in the bottom of the sixth to tie it at 6-6, forcing extra innings.

Miles Pond had three hits and two RBI for the Lions while Estrada had a pair of RBI.

Carson Johnson was 3-for-4 with two RBI while DeShaun Finches and Jayden Raynes each had two hits and an RBI for the Tigers.

Covington (16-8, 7-2) won its fourth straight game while Slidell (10-17, 1-8) lost for the seventh time in eight games. The two rivals will conclude the series at Slidell on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Ponchatoula went on the road and outscored Fontainebleau 13-8.

The Bulldogs jumped on top with three runs in the bottom of the second inning and a run in the third to make it 4-0.

Ponchatoula scored three in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to one and erupted for seven runs in the top of the fifth to take a 10-4 lead.

Fontainebleau scored twice in the bottom of the fifth and it was 10-6.

The Green Wave answered with three runs in the top of the sixth to grab a 13-6 lead before the Bulldogs scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to account for the final score.

Blaine McMorris had two hits and two RBI for Ponchatoula while Cole Landry and LJ Whitaker each drove in a pair of runs. while Brandt Jones had two hits for the Green Wave, who finished with eight hits.

Sam Eppinette had three hits for the Bulldogs, who tallied 10 hits in the game.

Ponchatoula (14-10, 5-4) will conclude its two-game series at home against Fontainebleau (3-20, 2-7) Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Area Prep Baseball Results from Saturday, April 10
Carencro 7, Salmen 4 (game one)
Carencro 11, Salmen 3 (game two)
Covington 7, Slidell 6
Family Christian 20, Grand Isle 3 (game one)
Family Christian 24, Grand Isle 23 (game two)
Jesuit 4, Archbishop Rummel 2
Ponchatoula 13, Fontainebleau 8
St. James 10, Riverside Academy 4
St. Paul’s 3, Mandeville 2