Sports

WELSH – Heading into Tuesday’s Class B Region III Track and Field Championships, Midland coach Todd Briley knew his team would have to perform better than they did a week earlier at the District 7-B meet.
The good thing was that his team knew it as well.
The result: Midland PR’ed (personal records) in four events and finished the meet in second place with 77 points behind regional champion Lacassine with 117.

OPELOUSAS – The Crowley Gents closed out the regular season on a positive note Monday, pulling out a 10-5 victory over the homestanding Westminster Crusaders.
The Gents have won eight of their last 10 games to improve to 16-10 with Monday’s victory.
Once again, the Gents broke out the big sticks, banging out 13 hits off four different Crusader pitchers.
Kyron Benoit got the Gents going early, driving a leadoff triple to the wall in center in the second inning. He eventually scored the first run of the game on a passed ball.

CROWLEY – Each time Cecilia and Notre Dame have squared off on the diamond the last four year’s, it has been a battle to the end.
The only difference Monday was the fact that the two weren’t battling it out for a district title.
Cecilia (25-6), which moved from District 5-AAA to 6-AAA this year, returned a visit from Notre Dame earlier in the year and slipped away from Miller Stadium with a thrilling 8-7 eight-inning victory.
Notre Dame (16-12) actually took a three-run lead heading into the top of the seventh inning, but the Pios were unable to hold on.

ALEXANDRIA – The Crowley Gents took another step towards a Top-16 seed late last week with an 8-3 thumping of Class B’s top-ranked Runnels at Lousiana College’s Allgood Field.
The Gents pounded out 12 hits overall, but did most of their damage in the first two innings.
Crowley plated two runs in the first inning and five in the second to take a commanding 7-0 advantage.
Runnels scored one run in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Jake Trahan (6-4) picked up the win, giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk. He struck out three in six and a third innings.

WELSH – A total of 22 athletes will be representing the Midland Rebels and Lady Rebels today when action gets under way at the Division III Regional Track & Field meet at Welsh High School.
The group earned their berths in last week’s District 7-B Track and Field Championships, in which the Lady Rebels placed second (97), seven behind league champion Lacassine, and the boys finished third (69) behind league champion Lacassine (134) and runnerup Grand Lake (86).

ZACHARY – Notre Dame sophomore Ali Lucas admittedly was nervous when the 2008 golf season began.
Now, she beams with confidence after rallying on the final day of the Division II State Golf Championships to take individual medalist honors in the biggest tournament of the year for high school girls.
A confident Lucas, who began the day four strokes back, calmly clawed her way back, overtaking the pack early in the day and posting a most improbable victory with a two-day total of 154.
Her 77-77 finish was three strokes better than the score of runnerup Taylor Griffin of Episcopal.