The Loreauville softball team secured the District 8-2A title with a blowout 16-0 victory over Franklin.

The Lady Tigers entered the contest with an undefeated 5-0 record in district play, making their road contest against Franklin merely a formality.

With a 21-8 record, Loreauville was the clear favorite going into the game, but head coach Jude Dugas said he still wanted to make sure that his team focused on doing everything the right way.

“These girls know exactly what they’re coming into, so we just try to focus on staying mentally tough in these kinds of games,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re doing the little things right like champions do. We want to do the little things right, pay attention to detail and do what we need to do to get the job done. We did a good job of that today.”

Franklin’s pitching struggles didn’t give Loreauville many opportunities to hit the ball. Ava Theriot and Alyssa Soileau managed to each record a home run against the Lady Hornets, with Makenzie Bonin adding a double in the first inning.

Junior Lexi Mclin led the team in stolen bases with three. Mclin finished the game with two RBIs.

Soileau started the game at pitcher before being replaced by Saydi Landry in the second inning, who made way for Bella Smith in the third inning. Soileau (3 strikeouts), Landry (2 strikeouts) and Smith (2 strikeouts) all performed well from the circle.

The win brings the District 8-2A title back to Loreauville, something that Dugas said was an early goal for his team.

“It’s exciting,” Dugas said of the title. “That’s one of the goals that we always have at the beginning of the year. I think we did a really good job. We outscored our opponents 93-1, so it was a really excellent performance. That’s goal number one checked off so now we want to turn our attention to making a run at the state tournament.”

The Lady Tigers are currently the No. 7 team in Non-Select Division III, falling three spots after a 6-6 tie against Sacred Heart and two wins against West St. Mary and Franklin that provided very few points for the power ranking formula.

Dugas said that he wants to enter the postseason as one of the top-six teams in the division to secure a first round bye.

“That would allow us to rest and recoup and just focus on what we need to do,” Dugas said of the possible bye. “Right now I think we’re in that spot. The top six teams get byes and right now we’re number four. We’d also love to hold on to that number four spot because we would keep home-field advantage the whole time. Loreauville is a hard place to come and win, so we’d really like to hold on to that and use it to our advantage.”

Loreauville is unbeaten since a 3-1 loss to Beau Chene in March and looks to be playing some of its best ball at the right time.

Dugas said that he is happy that his team is peaking exactly when he wants them to.

“The goal is always to peak at the right time and I think we’re really, really playing some good ball,” he said. “We’re doing the right things offensively. We always pitch and play defense well but the offense has really come around. I think we’re going to be a scary team to come up against in the next few weeks.”

Loreauville ended last season’s playoff run with a 4-1 loss to Port Barre in the second round. This year’s bracket is scheduled to be released on Thursday.

Loreauville will end the regular season with an away game to Central B.R. on Wednesday.