By T. Scott Boatright
It ain’t over until it’s over.
That’s a lesson learned by the Choudrant Lady Aggies Saturday afternoon, even if it all happened the hard way.
But the Lady Aggies made the grade Saturday with an 8-7 win over top-seeded Holden to advance to the championship round of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division V Select School playoffs to be held in Sulphur.
Against Holden, Choudrant jumped out early, building a 2-1 advantage by tH
Single scored herself when Elissa Guillotte also reached first on a Holden fielding effort to push Choudrant’s lead to 2-1.
The Lady Aggies added three more runs in the bottom of the second as Choudrant scored three runs off of two hits, two walks and a hit batter with Mattie Johnston, Faith Milton and Bennett all accounting for runs to propel CHS to a 5-1 advantage.
Holden countered with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning, but Choudrant answered by pushing across three runs in the bottom of the fifth to build an 8-3 lead.
Zoey Smith and Addison Worley both singled to start that inning for the Lady Aggies before Smith scored on a sacrifice hit by Guilotte.
Emma Bell then reached first on a fielding error, scoring Worley, before scoring herself on a sacrifice hit by Milton.
Then Bennett had to survive a four-run barrage by Holden in the top of the sixth inning that cut Choudrant’s lead to one run at 8-7 heading into the top of the seventh.
Bennett gave up a single to the first Holden batter, but after picking off that baserunner at second on a stolen base attempt she shut down the next two Lady Rockets’ batters to secure the win pushing the Lady Aggies into the Division V select semifinals.
There the ninth-seeded Lady Aggies will meet fourth-seeded Converse in semifinals play starting at noon Friday in Sulphur.
“This one of the more intense games I’ve ever coached in,” Choudrant’s Wayne Antley said after the contest. “It was just crazy intense. But we pulled it off and now we go down to Sulphur where it’s anybody’s tournament. This is just a great win for this team during a great season.”
The way Bennett maintained her composure in the circle and buckled down for the win did not go unnoticed by Antley
“She did that the last two games in the playoffs – just shook off the starts and just kept fighting,” Antley said. “That’s just the way this team is – the personality of the team. It wasn’t ‘if’ we beat Holden, it was ‘when’ they beat Holden.
“And they went out and did it. Against the top team in the state for a while now. We’ll see what happens, but this team can do whatever they want to. Beat whoever they want to. We have something special happening here.”
