PERFECT FORM—St. Thomas Aquinas’ Daniel Huggett is tagged out at the plate by Pope John Paul’s Andre Damiens during the second inning of Tuesday’s District 9-2A tilt in Hammond. Huggett was trying to score on Jacob Trapani’s single. STA defeated PJP 3-2 in the 9-2A finale, clinching the Falcons’ third-straight district crown. Justin Robicheaux/Daily Star

St. Thomas Aquinas wasn’t too keen on letting Pope John Paul celebrate an outright District 9-2A title at Falcon Field.

The Falcons’ dramatic 3-2 win on Thursday assured that such a celebration wouldn’t occur in Hammond.

Gabe Woods broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh with an RBI double to right, securing a spit district title for the Falcons and allowing STA and PJP to enter next week’s playoff seeding meeting as the league’s top team. STA head coach John Legoria said there will be no district playoff game.

“I am so proud of my kids,” Legoria said. “Both teams are going to be tough outs in the playoffs.”

The win provides STA (22-7, 11-1) with its third consecutive district title and caps the program’s winningest season.

In District 7-5A Thursday, Ponchatoula finally snapped its five-game district losing skid, while any momentum the Hammond Tors built off their big victory in Covington Tuesday evaporated when sloppy defense gift-wrapped two Mandeville runs in the first inning and the Skippers went to to take a 6-1 victory at the HHS diamond.

A leadoff infield single on a routine-looking grounder was the only hit in the Mandeville first, which was fueled by three Hammond errors. After that the Tors (9-17, 1-11) couldn't muster much offense off Mandeville pitcher Lee Batchelder, who allowed just three hits and one unearned run.

"We give them two runs in the first and one run in another inning, and that just kills you from the get-go," Tors coach Steve Labbe said. "We were hoping from the other night it would carry over, but it didn't.

"We've got to make plays when they're there. You can't give away runs."

In Covington, Ponchatoula went to the fifth inning down 2-0 against St. Paul's. But the Greenies finally broke out, pouring across seventh runs in the frame and going on to defeat the Wolves 11-2.

Torin Lucas pitched a complete-game four-hitter, striking out five and allowing no runs after the first inning. Lucas also belted a two-run homer, while Laramie Pittman went 4-for-5 and drove in two more runs to keep the Green Wave (16-11, 6-6) in playoff contention.

And in District 10-3A, Loranger completed a perfect run through district with a 15-2 romp at Independence, the Wolves’ ninth straight double-digit victory. Except for a 6-3 win over Amite in the district opener, Loranger (22-10, 10-0) ten-run ruled every team in the district.

Shea Edwards pitched a two-hitter and the Wolves racked up 13 hits. Jake Artigue was 2-for-3 with three RBI and Kyle Wheeler went 2-for-3 with one RBI.

"It feels great and it’s a relief, too," said Wolves head coach Jason Helmsetter. "Once we saw that going undefeated in district was a possibility, our players and the coaches have felt the pressure build, but I am proud of how this group handled each challenge and kept their focus on the task at hand.

"I told them that perfection is rare at any level and to enjoy it for a few days, and then we’ll go back to work to get ready for the playoffs."

DISTRICT 9-2A

St. Thomas Aq. 3, PJP 2

Cody Durham picked up the win in seven innings, allowing just one earned run on seven hits with 12 strikeouts and two walks. PJOP's Sean Kennel was just as dominating but fell victim to timely STA hitting and four errors by his defense. Kennel struck out four and walked none.

“The breaks were not going our way,” Legoria said. “A lesser team could have folded because you see the breaks were not going our way. I am so proud of these kids.”

St. Thomas got a pair of singles in each of the first two innings but managed just one run. Gemelle Washington reached on error in the second, moved to second on Daniel Huggett’s single and showed his spee by scoring from there on Gabe Woods’ base hit. But PJP leftfielder Nate Hewitt gunned down Huggett at te plate trying to score on Jacob Trapani’s single.

St. Thomas made it 2-0 in the third when Blake Brooks’ RBI single plated Ryan Downing.

It took the Jaguars three times through the order to get to Durham. Ross Macaluso smoked a one-out double in the fifth and then scored on Mike Atkinson’s double off the left field wall. Durham got a strikeout, but Zack Pohto reached on a throwing error that allowed Atkinson to score and knot the game at 2-2.

The Falcons threatened again until the sixth when Brooks reached on a one out error and Trey Marino hit a ground-rule double to left. But Kennel got back-to-back strikeouts to strand the runners in scoring position.

But the Falcons won it in the seventh when Huggett led off the inning with a double and Woods followed with his walk-off double to win it.

The Class 2A playoff brackets will be released Tuesday.

—Reported by Justin Robicheaux

DISTRICT 7-5A

Mandeville 6, Hammond 1

The Tors did throw three runners out on the basepaths in the first, but they booted a pair of grounders and failed to cover second on a stolen base. Those errors allowed James Winget and Joey Pajares to drive in first-inning runs with a pair of infield grounders.

Mandeville got two more in the second as Remy Angelle and John Wenzel each singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Garrett Cannizaro and an RBI double by Jamie Bruno.

Hammond got one back in the third when Josh Geraci reached on an error, Jeremy Skinner sacrificed him to second, and Shane Cutrer lashed a two-out RBI single. But Mandeville got single runs in the fifth on James Winget's RBI single and in the sixth on Garrett Cannizaro's RBI ground out. The Tors threw runners out at the plate in each inning to prevent further damage.

But they couldn't muster enough offense to take advantage of a solid pitching performance by starter Steven Tanis, who hurled a complete game and gave up four earned runs on 12 hits.

"Tanis threw great," Labbe said. "He battled. He walked one guy right there at the end, but he just got ground ball after ground ball and pop-up after pop-up. You can't ask for anything more from the pitcher."

Cuter was 2-for-3 and Tanis and Koty Miller had the only other Hammond hits off Batchelder. Dustin Guillory was 3-for-4, Ross Hardy was 2-for-4 and Angelle 2-for-3 for Mandeville.

—Reported by John Lenz