Top seeded John Curtis rallies past Lady Pios

SULPHUR -   The Notre Dame Lady Pios had the top-seeded John Curtis Lady Patriots on the ropes for five innings Friday in their Class 3A quarterfinal showdown at Frasch Park.
The Lady Pios held a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth inning and they had limited the Lady Patriots to just four hits in the first five innings. 
You could almost feel an upset.
Then, in just a matter of minutes, it was all gone.
Sparked by Payton Adams’s 2-run double, the  Lady Patriots  awoke from their slumber, ripped six hits and erupted for five runs in the sixth inning in rallying  for a 7-3 victory.
“We had a couple of opportunities early in the game that kind of gave them (John Curtis) some runs that hurt us,” said ND coach Ashley Ray, whose team gave up a pair of unearned runs in the third inning.
“Whenever they string those big hits together, it maybe doesn’t hurt us quite so bad if we don’t give them the ones off the errors. But, it is what it is.”   
Despite a few defensive woes, the Lady Pios were, for the most part, outstanding in the field.   
Third baseman Mima Doucet made a number of nice grabs for outs, including a diving catch on a foul ball that turned into a double play in the third inning. And Elise LeBeouf had a diving catch in center field in the fifth.   
“Mima made a bunch of big plays today that really got us out of some jams,” said Ray. “We made some errors, but we made some big plays that helped us.” 
The Lady Pios also struggled some at the plate off of Curtis’ Peyton Picou.   
Picou entered the game in the second inning after starting pitcher Peyton Pigniolo was called for 10 illegal pitches and the freshman held the Lady Pios to just three hits the rest of the way.
The Lady Pios left seven runners stranded on the day, including five in scoring position.   
“I think that we were clutch in certain situations and we had some at-bats that really hurt us too,” said Ray. “We had some opportunities to push a few more runs and we just didn’t execute in those situations.”   
The Lady Pios got on the board in the first inning when Brittney Nolan walked and moved to third on a pair of illegal pitches. She then scored on another illegal pitch to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.   
Doucet led off the third inning with a double to left field and crossed the plate two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Taylor Satchell to increase the lead to 2-0.
John Curtis answered in the bottom of the frame, pushing across two runs on a double by Toni Hebert, two walks and a two-out error.   
The Lady Pios regained the lead in the fifth inning when Mary Kate Bourgeois singled to right field and scored on an error, Curtis’ only miscue of the game.
The Lady Patriots put the game away in the bottom of the six with their five-run outburst.   
Adams drove in a pair of runs with a double while Logan Melancon and  Lydia Linden each RBI singles. The final run crossed the plate on an error in the outfield.  
Doucet had two of Notre Dame’s four hits, a single and a double. Nolan added a double and Bourgeois had a single.  
“We had a really good sesason,” said Ray. “A lot of things didn’t go our way, but to get here and compete against one of the best teams in the state....  I couldn’t be more proud. Despite everything that we’ve gone through, to come out and play this game like we did, you can’t really be disappointed with that. The score might not show it but I think we played them a good game.”