St. Thomas Aquinas advances to semifinals with sweep of LCA

As the top seed, the expectations for St. Thomas Aquinas are huge in Division II.

The Falcons have lived up to those expectations, to this point of the playoffs.

Logan Pierre doubled home Domiano with the winning run in the top of the eighth inning to give the St. Thomas Aquinas a 2-1 victory over No. 8 seed Lafayette Christian in Hammond to sweep the two-game Division III quarterfinal series.

Domiano had singled and stole second prior to Pierre’s big hit. Pierre finished with two hits.

The game was scoreless into the bottom of the sixth inning when Lafayette Christian took the lead as losing pitcher Hunter Lail reached on an error and scored on a double by Michaek Simon to make it 1-0.

Three outs from forcing a game three, the Knights could not close it out as the Falcons rallied to tie it in the top of the seventh inning.

Danik Reed started the rally with a double and scored on a single by Jordan Trapani to force extra innings.

Gavin Foster went the distance to pick up the victory.

Lail pitched well but took the loss for the Knights.

“In the playoffs, anyone can beat anyone,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Cole Catalano said. “I told the boys nothing would be handed to them. We have a good crop of seniors. We scheduled as hard as we could and it has benefited us. Lafayette Christian was a tough opponent. We just want to finish what we started.”

The script was a familiar script for STA.

“To end the season, we played John Curtis and Destrehan and won both games in extra innings, in our last at-bat and that certainly helped,” Catalano said. “We were faced with the same situation Saturday. We keep getting key hit after key hit and our pitchers are putting up zeros. These boys have played together for a long time and it shows.”

St. Thomas Aquinas (28-7) advances to host No. 5 Episcopal in the semifinals. The Knights eliminated No. 4 Dunham in three games.

The Falcons won the Class 2A state championship in 2016 and played in the Division III state championship game in 2018.

“Episcopal is a very good program,” Catalano said. “They have a good arm to throw at us. The good news is that the semifinals will be at home and the championship is in our back yard at Southeastern Louisiana. We are expecting a good game.”

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DIVISION I   |   DIVISION II   |   DIVISION III
DIVISION IV   |   DIVISION V