HERO'S WELCOME—St. Thomas Aquinas Falcons teammates greet Russell Pellichino (9) at the plate after Pellichino swatted a three-run home run to trigger an eight-run first inning that propelled the Falcons to an 11-1 victory over Farmerville Thursday.

St. Thomas Aquinas opened the Class 2A playoffs just the way it wanted to Thursday.

Ponchatoula's playoff for the playoffs, however, did not go so well.

The Falcons clubbed Farmerville into submission with a two-homer, nine-hit attack and required just five innings of pitching labor to advance with an 11-1 victory.

"Save your pitching - that's what you want in the first round," said Falcons coach John Legoria, who liked what the Falcons did at the plate even better, especially Russell Pellichino's three-run homer in the first inning and Gemelle Washington' scorching two-run shot in the second.

"We hit the ball as hard today as we've hit it all year long," Legoria said. "Some of the base hits were hit hard and the two home runs were monumental."

STA (23-7-1) advances to the regionals on Monday at DeQuincy, which ousted Doyle 6-4 on Thursday.

In Class B bi-district playoff action, No. 25 Holden's season ended with a 16-1 road setback at No. 8 Pitkin.

In District 7-5A's playoff for third place, the cream rose to the top for Mandeville as the Skippers' two blue-chip signees for this year, Jamie Bruno and Ross Hardy, each homered in a decisive three-run third.

And next year's projected D-I signee, Garrett Cannizaro, took the hill and pitched in constant trouble but not much sorrow as he held Ponchatoula off for a 6-2 victory at Athletic Park.

Still, the loss doesn't figure to hurt the playoff chances for Ponchatoula (18-11, 8-6).

"From everyone I've talked to and everyone I've heard, this district is going to get a wild card," Wave coach Mark Gosnell said. "We'll find in Tuesday (at 10 a.m. in Baton Rouge) if we got in and where we'll be going. The mock rankings that they've been doing, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to them, but they've had us anywhere from 14-20, and if we're in that top 16, we get a home playoff game."

CLASS 2A

St. Thomas Aq. 11, Farmerville 1

Farmerville (19-12) got the Falcons' attention early as starting pitcher and leadoff man Alex Lavalle ripped a first-pitch single, stole both second and third, and tagged and scored on a sacrifice fly by Allen Neel.

But in the bottom of the inning, the Falcons went off. Walks to Gabe Woods and Ryan Downing set the table for Pellichino's three-run blast that put STA ahead to stay - but there would be more.

Blake Brooks was hit by a pitch and scored when Washington's grounder was booted for an error, one of three by the Farmers. Daniel Huggett and Downing each lashed RBI singles and Woods singled home two more.

"They came out and scored one and shocked us a little bit early; we didn't expect them to run and do all that," Legoria said. "To come out and answer that with (eight) in the first inning, that's what good teams do. We kind of took their heart after the first inning."

STA starter Cody Durham issued a walk and an infield single to open the second, but then got a pop-up and two strikeouts. After that, he retired eight of the next nine Farmerville batters before Huggett came on and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth and final inning. Together they allowed a single and two infield hits with one walk and nine strikeouts.

STA padded its lead in the second when Trey Marino reached on an error and Washington launched a line drive homer to left to make it 10-1. The final run came in the third when Downing doubled and Pellichino singled him home to cap a 2-for-3, four RBI day.

Downing was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and Huggett was 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored for the Falcons.

-Reported by John Lenz

CLASS 5A

Mandeville 6, Ponchatoula 2

PONCHATOULA-Ponchatoula had threats in every inning but one, but Cannizaro denied them the key hit they needed, stranding nine Wave baserunners as he allowed eight hits and three walks but struck out seven.

"You've got to give him credit," Gosnell said. "He threw a great ballgame, made pitches when he had to and got us out when he had to."

The first inning was typical for Ponchatoula - Tyler Nelson led off with a double and Laramie Pittman singled him home, and the Greenies went on to load the bases with one out. But Cannizaro coaxed a 1-2-3 double play to get out of it, and the Wave would not score again until the bottom of the seventh.

"We just didn't get those two-out hits tonight," Gosnell said. "You don't have to do that all the time, but you have to do it once in a while and we didn't do it tonight."

Mandeville took the lead for good in the third off Wave starter Regis Stephens, who walked Cannizaro with one out, then Bruno launched a two-run homer. Seconds later, Hardy made it back-to-back jacks for a 3-0 lead.

The Skippers got two more in the fifth on an RBI single by Hardy and a wild throw to the plate from leftfield that allowed a second runner to score. And three singles and a bases-loaded walk to Dustin Guillory in the top of the seventh made it 6-1.

The Greenies' only other run came in the seventh when Nelson walked, Dylan Hills doubled him to third, and Torin Lucas lofted a sacrifice fly before Cannizaro got a strikeout to end the game.

Kody Keowan and Joey Pajares each went 2-for-4 and Hardy was 2-for-3 with two RBI for the Skippers. Nelson was 1-for-3 with two runs scored and Hills and B.J. Welch each went 2-for-4.

-Reported by John Lenz