State Champs!

Pope John Paul II’s Lady Jaguars completed a historic season Saturday with the school’s first softball state title with a 4-0 victory over district rival Doyle in the finals at Frasch Park in Sulphur.

PJP, the second seed, completed an unbelievable 27-1-3 year under first-year coach Lonna Winslow, who took the position after David Eads resigned earlier this school year.

Winslow gave all the credit to her team on its increditible run through the year.

“It had nothing to do with me. It had everything to do with the girls I had on the team,” Winslow said. “The girls have been saying since the first day of practice, ‘we’re going to state. Not only are we going to state, we’re going to win it.’ I’ve been the voice of reason, saying ‘Girls, one game at a time.’ We played every game like it was the first one and we did it.”

It was the third time this season PJP defeated Doyle. The other two games, which took place during the district season, were 4-3 in eight innings and 4-0. The ninth seeded Lady Tigers finished the season with a 22-5 record.

The Lady Jaguars were helped out in the final contest by timely hitting from first-baseman Meghan Collins and stellar pitching by Laura Ricciardone, the team’s ace in the circle.

Ricciardone (19-1-3) had excellent control. She gave up six hits, while striking out eight and walking one. She retired the first eight hitters she faced before giving up consecutive singles in the third by Madison Fontenot and Morgan Swindle. The only major trouble she got into was in the seventh when Morgan Devall opened with a single and went to second on a fielder’s choice. Lizzy Padget singled to right, but PJP’s Danielle Olivier came up throwing to cut down Devall at third. Stephanie Gray came up with a two-out single, putting runners on first and second. With two outs, Fontenot hit a ground ball that hit Gray, the base runner at first. PJP thinking Gray was out for base runner interference, had to hold off on the celebration for a moment as the umpires met and finally called Gray out.

Between the semifinals and the finals Saturday, Ricciardone threw 199 pitches, giving up two runs on eight hits with 15 strikeouts and just three walks in 14 innings of work.

Ricciardone described her excitement on winning the state title.

“It’s unreal. You work your whole season for this,” Ricciardone said.

Her dad Jim, the team’s assistant coach, calls her pitches and handles the coaching duties at third base. When asked about winning the state title with her dad, she simply said, “You have no idea. It’s awesome.”

Jim described his excitement on coaching his daughter this year.

“It’s great, unbelievable. I couldn’t think of a better thing to do than to coach your own daughter. It’s excellent. It’s like Christmas every day,” Jim said.

He added that he enjoyed coaching the whole team, not just his daughter.

“This is about the girls we’ve known for years and years. It was a good time for the four months,” Jim said.

Collins was big for PJP on Saturday. Between the semifinals and the finals, she combined to hit for the cycle, going 5-for-7 with two home runs and five RBIs.

In a 0-0 game during the third inning of the finals, after Nicole Saucier was hit, Collins followed with a one-out RBI triple, sending Saucier home with the first run.

Collins talked about the at bat.

“We got somebody on base and I struck out the last time, so I got up, saw a pitch I could hit and just sent it to left,” Collins said.

PJP added another run in the fourth and again it started with a hit batsman, this time Jeanne Delaup. Then Brittany McGowan reached on an error. Rachelle Ammond popped up a bunt to the pitcher, who made the catch, but in an attempt to get Delaup at second, she threw the ball low and into center field. Delaup scored on the play, giving the Lady Jaguars a 2-0 edge.

Pope John Paul scored once again in the fifth and Collins was in the middle of the action as she got things started with a one-out walk. After she was forced at second on a fielder’s choice by Ricciardone, Shelly Pontiff doubled to left, scoring courtesy runner Jessica Gros.

PJP got an insurance run in the seventh as Collins singled to center then stole second, setting up Ricciardone for an RBI single to finalize the scoring.

The Lady Jaguars have a young team that will lose just one senior in shortstop McGowan. PJP features four juniors and seven sophomores, including Ricciardone.

PJP coach Winslow said McGowan will be missed and described her shortstop as the “heart and soul” of the team.

McGowan said she couldn’t end her high-school career in better fashion.

“I have an amazing team and I couldn’t ask for anything better,” she said. “This is the last game I’ll ever play in my entire life. I couldn’t ask for a better way to end it.”

In Saturday’s semi-final game, Collins hit two homers, while driving in four during a 7-2 victory over Pine Prairie. Ricciardone threw a complete-game two hitter with seven strikeouts, while only allowing one earned run.

Collins, who said it was her first career two-home run game, said she was trying to make good contact when she was up to bat. Collins said she didn’t know if she had enough to get them out. She talked about the pitches.

“Every time, I want to hit the ball as hard as I can. They were nice and high,” she said.

Collins finished the game with three hits, including a second-inning RBI double.

PJP opened the scoring in the first. Pontiff doubled and Delaup was hit. McGowan then recorded an RBI single to make it 1-0.

The Lady Jags added three more in the second as Michelle Diaz reached on an error with one out. Saucier, who had two hits, followed with a single, and Collins doubled in Diaz. Ricciardone was next and she came up with a 2-run double to make it 4-0.

Collins’ two dingers accounted for the final three runs for the Lady Jags in the victory.

The quarterfinals ended in dramatic fashion. Nine-hole hitter Diaz, a sophomore, may have come up with the biggest hit of her career when she smacked a walk-off RBI double with two outs in the seventh of a tie ballgame. Ammond scored from first, giving the Lady Jaguars a 2-1 victory over Rosepine. Ammond had two of the Lady Jaguars’ five hits in a game that was dominated by the pitching.

Diaz said she was thrilled about the hit.

“I was a little nervous, but I was praying to God I would hit it. I creamed the ball out there and I was so happy when I on at second base,” Diaz said.

Ricciardone got the win as she went the distance giving up one run on five hits with seven strikeouts.

The Lady Jags held a 1-0 lead on a Cutura second-inning homer down the left-field line, but Rosepine tied the game in the sixth when pitcher Christina Hamilton took matters into her own hands with an RBI double to the left-center field gap.

She was the hard-luck losing pitcher, finishing with 13 strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter.