Tough St. Charles Catholic edges Newman to advance to semifinals

St. Charles Catholic is always tough, a tough-minded, tough and competitive team with a great pedigree.

To beat the Comets, you have to beat the Comets because they seldom beat themselves.

That was the case again Saturday against a good, game Newman squad.

In the end, the second-seeded Comets prevailed 3-2 over the seventh-seeded Greenies to sweep the two-game series.

The Comets took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but the Greenies scored twice in the bottom of the third to take a 2-1 lead on an RBI single by William Hewitt, who had three hits, and an RBI double by Iv Guillot, who had two hits.

St. Charles Catholic tied with a run in the top of the fourth.

In the top of the fifth, Jackson Monica singled home what proved to be the game-winning run, scoring Ian Arnett, who had singled. Arnett had two hits in the game.

Junior Michael Hotard went the distance to pick up the win, allowing two runs on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts.

Cade Edmonds had an RBI single for the Comets while Brayden Bertucci had a pair of hits.

Walter Scirber took the loss for Newman, going 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs while striking out four. Tucker Joseph pitched the final 2 1/3 innings for the Greenies (22-14).

“They took themselves off the carpet but I knew they wouldn’t,” St. Charles Catholic head coach Wayne Stein said. “It’s never easy to play a familiar opponent, a district opponent. Whenever you know each other, it’s always different. There is so much thought in a three-game series. Whoever wins game two has all the momentum. We knew we had to win it. Most of the time, whoever wins game two wins game three.”

Stein prepared his team well to get to this stage.

“I’m proud of my kids,” Stein said. “I tried to put a schedule together to challenge them that would make it hard to win 20 games. They rose to the occasion. At one point, we were 13-9 but we are battle tested and have won 13 in a row. We are playing our best baseball at the right time.”

St. Charles Catholic won the Division III state championship in 2019 and lost in the title game to Notre Dame (7-2) in the 2021 title game. The Comets have been to seven title games with Stein, a former Comet player who has served as the head coach for nine seasons and an assistant for 10 years.

The Comets (26-9) advance to host a familiar opponent in No. 3 Notre Dame in a rematch in the semifinals Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at Roussel Field in LaPlace.

“Notre Dame is a great program that does it right.”, Stein said. “There are many similarities between our programs. They have tough kids who play hard. It’s a single game. We will prepare. Whoever is good enough that one day will win. Obviously, there is familiarity. The motivation is trying to advance to the state championship game, not revenge. Our schedule has exposed our team to the very best opponent possible.”

​BASEBALL SEEDING

CLASS | DIVISION

BASEBALL BRACKETS

CLASS 5A   |   CLASS 4A   |   CLASS 3A   |   CLASS 2A
CLASS 1A   |   CLASS B   |   CLASS C

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