Class 1A, 2A finals come to FGF

The Class 2A and 1A state semifinals and finals will be played at Fair Grounds Field this weekend and will have many North Louisiana teams in competition for a state championship.

It all begins Friday at 10 a.m. with a 1A semifinal between St. Mary's and Catholic-Pointe Coupee. Oak Grove and Ouachita Christian will follow at approximately 1 p.m. with the other 1A semifinal.

Evangel and Dunham will play the first 2A semifinal at 4 p.m. and Calvary vs. Lakeside finish up the day with a 7 p.m. start.

This all depends if the rain that is predicted for in the morning doesn't back things up.

Tough day for 1-5A

Two of District 1-5A's team fell from the Class 5A playoffs in the second round. Three seed Airline fell at home to 14 seed Zachary 3-2 and 16 seed Captain Shreve lost to one seed Catholic in Baton Rouge 10-1. Byrd managed to escape an upset from Mandeville in a 2-1 walkoff win in eight innings.

Airline (27-7) saw its season end in heartbreaking fashion. Locked up in a 1-1 game entering the final seventh inning, Viking starting pitcher Layton Tromba was called for a balk on a play that should have been the final out for Zachary. Given the extra chance, the Broncos took advantage and scored twice to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the 7th. The Vikings could manage just one run in their half of the inning and come up short of advancing to the state tournament in New Orleans.

Captain Shreve stayed close to the top seeded Bears until starting pitcher Alex Fliss was finally knocked from the game. With a 2-1 lead, Catholic broke things open with an eight run sixth inning. Senior shortstop Jared Hedges (2-for-3) accounted for the Gators only run with a home run in the top of the sixth. Catholic starting pitcher, Aaron Nola (7-0), was brilliant in limiting the Gators to just three hits and striking out 12.

Byrd got another stellar pitching performance from Matt Sharp and won the game when outfielder Alex Inabnet hit a home run to end things. Byrd will meet Catholic in the quarterfinals on Friday in New Orleans.

Loyola takes golf/tennis State Titles

The Loyola boys golf team captured the Division III (Class 3A) State Championship on Tuesday at Oak Wing Golf Club in Alexandria. The Flyers had a two-day total 640 to outdistance runner-up Notre Dame by 16 strokes. Leading the way for the Flyers was medalist Eric Ricard who posted rounds of 69 and 73 for a 142 total. Just two strokes behind him was teammate Kirk Thomas (69-75--144). Loyola's Ryan Crissman was also among the top 10 individual finishers with a two-day total 168.

The Loyola boys tennis team also brought home a state championship. It was the seventh state tennis title for the Flyers.

District 1-5A teams post shutouts on first day

Both Byrd and Captain Shreve posted shutout wins on the first day of the Class 5A baseball playoffs in Shreveport Tuesday.

Byrd's Matt Sharp pitched a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts in leading the Yellow Jackets to a 3-0 win over Walker. Peter Pizarro had the biggest hit of the day for Byrd with a solo home run.

Alex Fliss pitched a shutout in Captain Shreve's 10-0 five inning run ruled win over Central-Baton Rouge. Fliss (5-3) allowed just four hits and struckout five in his five innings of work. Michael Schimpf was 3-for-3 at the plate and Peyton Attaway and Daniel Midyett were both 2-for-3 with Midyett driving in a pair of runs. Shreve will now travel to Baton Rouge next Monday to face Catholic, the No. 1 seed in the bracket.

Class 5A baseball pairings released

The Class 5A baseball playoffs have been released and all three district 1 representatives will host first round games. Airline is the No. 3 seed and will host Grace King. Byrd is an eight seed and play Walker and Captain Shreve is a 16 seed and play Central-Baton Rouge.

Below is a list of the first round pairings for Class 5A (with seedings in parenthesis):

(32) Central Lafourche at (1) Catholic-BR

(17) Central-BR at (16) Captain Shreve

(24) Thibodaux at (9) Mandeville

(25) Walker at (8) Byrd

(28) Rummel at (5) Barbe

(21) East Ascension at (12) St. Thomas More

(20) Destrehan at (13) Shaw

(29) Pineville at (4) Jesuit

(30) Grace King at (3) Airline

(19) Brother Martin at (14) Zachary

(22) Sulphur at (11) St. Paul’s

(27) Fontainebleau at (6) Acadiana

(26) Covington at (7) Dutchtown

(23) St. Amant at (10) Denham Springs

(18) John Ehret at (15) Hahnville

(31) Chalmette at (2) Lafayette

Airline captures 1-5A title

The Airline Vikings have struggled with thier defense here lately but was able to fight off a Byrd rally Friday night to take a 7-6 win over the Yellow Jackets and capture the District 1-5A crown.

Airline opened up a 5-1 lead and led 7-3 until Byrd made it a one-run game but Taylor Henry got a big strikeout to end the game with the tying run on third base.

The Vikings and the rest of Class 5A will wait until Sunday to find out who they will play in the first round of the playoffs next week. Both the Vikings and Yellow Jackets will have first round games at home with both projected to be seeded in the Top 10 of the power ratings. The top 16 teams received home games the first round. Captain Shreve, the third place finisher in the district is right on the bubble at either 16 or 17.

Baseball playoffs announced

The brackets for the baseball playoffs have been posted for Classes 4A through C.

Locally Calvary is the No. 1 seed in Class 2A and play host to Welsh while Evangel is the No. 2 seed and will host Winnfield. Other class 2A matchups has North Caddo traveling to Lakeside, Springhill is at Opelousas Catholic and Many at Rosepine.

In Class 4A, Haughton is the four seed and will be host to district foe Minden. District 1 champion Northwood is at Benton, Beau Chene is at Parkway and Ruston hosts Vandebilt Catholic.

North DeSoto will welcome Jena to Stonewall in the first round of Class 3A and Loyola travels to Erath.

Class 5A will wrap up the regular season on Friday with final reports due to the LHSAA by 10 p.m.