For the second consecutive day, rain wreaked havoc on the area’s prep baseball schedule.

Hammond, Ponchatoula, and St. Thomas Aquinas were all unable to get postponed games underway because of heavy rain in the area on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in Bogalusa, the Hornets dodged the rain drops and finished the first half of the District 10-3A schedule with a winning record courtesy of a 13-9 victory. Albany (6-16, 3-2) never trailed in the game and had big hits from Chad Dickerson (three runs and a homer), Haiden Goodwin (two RBI) and Nick d’Fonseca (two RBI).

“To have a winning record in the first half of the district season is a big deal for us,” Albany head coach Chad Goulas said. “At this moment it’s big for Albany.”

The Tors will resume their game with Slidell on Friday at 4 p.m., Ponchatoula will head to Fontainebleau on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and the Falcons will meet Pope John Paul at 5 p.m. on Friday.

But those games will be put on the backburner until that time as all three teams jump into their regularly scheduled games this afternoon.

Hammond and Ponchatoula renew their rivalry at 6:30 p.m. in Ponchatoula with the Tors (8-11, 0-5) continuing to seek their first district victory. The Wave have had no such deficiencies thus far and have grabbed hold of the district lead with a 4-1 district mark.

“As far as we are concerned when we play Hammond you can throw the records out the window,” Ponchatoula head coach Mark Gosnell said. “The way we are looking at it is it’s a district game and we are playing at home and we’ll be ready to go.”

Hammond’s Stephen Labbe is downplaying the contest, likening it to just another district game.

“We will still try to look at it like any other baseball game,” Hammond head coach Stephen Labbe said. “We are putting more importance on it just because it’s the next game.”

In District 9-2A, the Falcons (15-6, 5-0) get their second shot at French Settlement when the Lions visit Hammond. St. Thomas, which is the top team in 9-2A, blasted FSHS 20-5 in the district opener on March 18, causing head coach John Legoria to worry about his team mental state today.

“When you beat somebody that bad you hope that your team doesn’t take them too lightly to where they could sneak up and beat you,” Legoria said.

The Loranger Wolves, fresh off a 12-2 win against Independence on Tuesday, remains the team to beat in District 10-3A and will be put to the test tonight when it travels to Jewel Sumner (4-8, 2-3). Other 10-3A games tonight feature Bogalusa at Independence and Albany at Amite.

The area’s other games tonight pit Springfield at St. Helena Central, Family Christian at Holden, and Lutheran at Maurepas.

TUESDAY'S GAMES

Loranger 12, Independence 2

LORANGER—The Wolves (15-9, 5-0) completed a first round sweep of District 10-3A with a 12-2 thrashing of the visiting Independence Tigers (1-16, 0-5) on Tuesday.

Taylor Abdalla and Tyler Kendrick paced the Loranger offense belting home runs while Bryce Himel pitched a complete game to earn the win striking out six.

“Overall I am proud of these guys,” Loranger head coach Jason Helmstetter said. “We kept the pressure on and scored in every inning but one. Going 5-0 in the first round of district play is nice, but it is only a success is if we go 5-0 one more time.”

The Tigers opened the first inning with a major threat as Zack Mannino smacked a two-out double and Josh McGee recorded an RBI single. Andrew Morgan and Cody Morgan kept the rally going with singles

“Their first four guys can hit the ball well and they came after us early,” said Helmstetter.

Loranger answered in the bottom half of the inning scoring two runs on a double by Kyle Wheeler. But it was the second that put the game away as the Wolves plated seven runs. A trio of seniors got the scoring started as Blake Bradley led off with a single, Nick Bihm got on base on an error, Josh DePhillips had an RBI sacrifice fly, Zack Serigny hit an RBI single, and Abdalla cleared the bases with a home run. Then, Wheeler and Tyler Giancone coaxed a walk and Kendrick cashed in with a three-run dinger to complete the scoring and put Loranger up 9-1 after only two innings.

The game was called in the fifth due to the 10-run rule.

—Reported by Gary Lee