Baton Rouge Area Weekly Notebook Presented By Trade Construction • April 12
by Jerit Roser // Capital Area High School Correspondent
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St. Amant, Catholic (P.C.) lead Capital Area softball teams into final week
The regular season winds to a close this week for high school softball teams across Louisiana.
And a pair of perennial powers from the Baton Rouge area appear poised to enter the playoffs as their respective brackets’ top seeds when the LHSAA releases the pairings Friday.
St. Amant flexed its muscles Thursday with an emphatic 11-1 road defeat of John Curtis in a matchup between the top-rated teams in the state’s top nonselect classification and select division.
The Gators (23-2) take Louisiana’s best power rating (35.720) into their finale Tuesday against visiting Alexandria (15-12), who would be the No. 14 seed in Class 5A if the bracket was set today.
No. 2 West Monroe (25-2) remains on St. Amant’s heels with a 35.430 power rating.
On the other side of the 225 area code — and the select/nonselect split and enrollment spectrum — Catholic (Pointe Coupee) enters a potentially busy week with the state’s best power rating in Division IV at 34.040.
The Hornets (26-6) still have a home game Monday against False River, road trip Wednesday to Parkview Baptist and home game Thursday against Walker (24-4) on the schedule, if the week’s rainy forecast allows.
No. 2 Calvary Baptist (25-5-1) sits next behind Catholic (P.C.) with a power rating of 33.810.
Other teams in GeauxPreps’ “Capital Area” region currently ranked in the top four in the respective brackets include: No. 4 Walker in Class 5A and No 3 Ascension Christian (11-8) and No. 4 St. John (13-4) in Division IV.
Nearby Doyle (24-5) in Class 2A and Holden (22-8) in Class B would each be No. 2 seeds.
Eagles keep cruising on baseball diamond
The Parkview Baptist baseball team cruised through another week with three victories by a combined 23-2 margin.
The Eagles (23-0) beat West Feliciana (13-10) on the road Tuesday, 13-0, and at home Thursday, 10-1, for a pair of District 7-3A wins, then beat Lafayette Christian(22-4) at home Saturday, 8-1, to remain Louisiana’s lone undefeated team.
Nondistrict matchups with Opelousas Catholic (14-10) on Tuesday, Holy Savior Menard (10-13) on Friday and Loranger (6-14) and St. Edmund (6-15) on Saturday fill this week’s schedule.
Parkview Baptist returns to district action next Tuesday and Thursday against University Lab (13-10).
Speedy Liberty Magnet RB among track standouts
Kaleb Jackson has started to hear from a few colleges, including SEC programs such as Kentucky, for his intriguing football potential.
And Liberty Magnet’s sophomore multisport standout is only helping bolster his case for eventual scholarship offers by flashing his speed this track season.
Jackson won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events Thursday with times of 10.96 seconds and 22.28 seconds, respectively, to help highlight the BSN Invitational Relays at Broadmoor High School.
Southern Lab senior Ann Walker won the girls’ races with 13.33-second and 27.75-second times among six athletes to win multiple individual events.
Broadmoor junior Chris Williams won the boys’ 110-meter hurdles (16.88 second) and 300-meter hurdles (43.29 seconds).
Northeast senior Darren Taylor won the boys’ triple jump (42-03.00) and javelin (155-11.00), and McKinley senior Geremiah Wilson won the boys’ discus (114-01.00) and shot put (39-11.50).
Istrouma junior Kiara Spiller won the girls’ 400-meter (1:04.93) and 800-meter (2:45.65) runs.
And East St. John’s Creecy sisters dominated the throwing events with junior Anya Creecy winning the discus (90—06.00) and finishing second in the javelin (68-07.00) and third in the shot put (26-00.75) to freshman Anya’s 84-10.00 and 31-00.00 marks, respectively.
The younger Creecy finished second in the discus (88-01.00).
Istrouma won the boys’ 4×100-meter (43.39 seconds) and 4×200-meter (1:30.50) relays.
Metro Baton Rouge 7-on-7 Summer League schedule released
Nearly two dozen schools in and around Baton Rouge are set to compete in the 2021 Robert Graves Invitational Metro Baton Rouge Summer League each Wednesday morning from June 9 through June 30.
University Lab joins the Livingston Parish trip of Live Oak, Walker and Denham Springs and that group’s District 4-5A rival Zachary as the five host sites for each week’s competitions.
Belaire, Capitol, Central, Central Private, Dutchtown, Episcopal, Glen Oaks, Istrouma Livonia, Madison Prep, McKinley, Northeast, Ponchatoula, Port Allen, St. Amant, St. Helena and Woodlawn will all rotate between the different venues.