No. 3 Vandebilt Catholic edges second-seeded St. Louis in semifinal pitching duel, 3-1

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - The re-match of the 2021 Division II semifinal lived up to the billing as third-seeded Vandebilt Catholic plated two runs in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and upset No. 2 St. Louis, 3-1 at Joe Miller Ballpark Wednesday night.

Vandebilt Catholic’s Owen Schexnaydre and St. Louis’ Luke Courville were both sharp on the mound as the duo allowed just eight hits combined in the game. Schexnaydre would go the distance on just 81 pitches allowing three hits and an unearned run while striking out seven Saints.

Courville, meanwhile, danced out of trouble in multiple innings as he allowed a runner to reach at least second in five innings. The senior then got into trouble in the seventh when, with Jean-Luc Lapeyre on second, Dominic Archila would single into right to break the tie and give the Terriers the 2-1 lead. Courville would then exit the game before Eli David picked up an RBI double to make it 3-1. Courville finished the game with 6.2 innings pitched picking up five strikeouts.

“That’s baseball. They got us last year [in the semifinals] and we knew we were not sneaking up on anyone and that we would have to play well,” said St. Louis coach Matt Fontenot I thought we had some opportunities but we didn’t capitalize and we made some decisions we didn’t capitalize on

Vandebilt Catholic opened the scoring in the first following a Saints’ throwing error on a bunt by Landon Rogers, Lapeyre would score from second to make it, 1-0.

The Saints would even the game up on a bunt as well following a sacrifice bunt by KeMonni Pullard.

The Saints were led offensively by Ryan Baron, Reid Snider, and Jake LaRocca who each picked up a hit

Vandebilt Catholic will face No. 8 University High Friday at 7 p.m. at Pat Kelly Diamond in Hammond for the Division II Championship. The Cubs upset fourth-seeded Parkview Baptist 7-5 to advance to the title game.

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