Junior Lexi McLinn is greeted by her team following a home run against Catholic High. 

LOREAUVILLE – With less than a month remaining in the regular season, the Loreauville softball team knows that the name of the game is consistency.

Whether at practice, at the plate or on the road, head coach Jude Dugas and his squad have their eyes on making a trip to the LHSAA State Softball Tournament in April, but that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t stumble occasionally.

“It’s crazy, yesterday we had a rough practice and it was almost like we all had a rough day,” Dugas explained. “We knew that wasn’t us but it’s always about the response. Maybe it was just a bit of an emotional hangover from the Houma Christian game, but the response tonight was great. Everybody was feeling like a million bucks tonight and the energy that you felt talking to the girls let me know that the girls were ready. It was fun to watch.”

The excitement began from the first inning in Thursday night’s district contest against Catholic High as senior pitcher Alyssa Soileau hit her first of two home runs en route to a five-run inning for the Lady Tigers. Four more runs came in the second inning, followed by three in the third and two in the fourth to end the game 14-0 in the fifth inning via mercy rule.

Soileau ended the night with three RBIs, two home runs and 11 strikeouts. Junior Lexi McLinn added a home run of her own as well as a double against the Lady Panthers while senior Saydi Landry picked up a double and triple.

Freshman pitcher Addisyn Derouen looked solid from the circle for Catholic High, recording three strikeouts on the night.

The win moved Loreauville to 16-2 overall this season and 2-0 in district play after a 19-1 win over Delcambre in February. The Lady Tigers will still need to perform well against Ascension Episcopal, Acadiana Renaissance Charter, Franklin and West St. Mary if they want to repeat as District 8-2A champs, but given the inconsistent quality of the other teams in their district, Loreauville has scheduled a full slate of difficult tournament games for the remainder of the season.

“We’re still playing on the weekends, which is kind of why we structure it like that,” Dugas said. “We’re going to Sulphur this weekend and we’re going to play Notre Dame and Dutchtown, so those are the kind of things that we want to put on the weekends just to make sure that you are still going up against top quality opponents.”

Top-ranked Dutchtown is just the latest in a long line of high-quality opponents that the Lady Tigers have seen this season. Games against Houma Christian, Sacred Heart, Iota, Southside and Beau Chene have battle-hardened the team for their playoff run and, according to Dugas, everyone is stepping up and getting the job done when it matters most.

“Everybody is doing their jobs and that’s something that we preach,” he said. “We hit three home runs today, but against Houma Christian we had a lot of disciplined at-bats, a lot of tough at-bats. This team has the experience to win in a variety of ways. We don’t always have to hit three home runs because we can put a lot of pressure on you with our speed. That’s the total team aspect of it, it’s going to take all of them in the lineup to win.”

Loreauville will face off against Florien (3-9) on Friday before playing a doubleheader on Saturday against Notre Dame (15-3) and Dutchtown (14-3).

Catholic High will return to action on Monday with an away contest against Hanson Memorial.