Doyle softball had a gut-check last week when it hosted two of Louisiana鈥檚 traditional powers, Archbishop Hannan and John Curtis Christian. The results weren鈥檛 perfect, but ultimately, they were encouraging for the Tigers, who rolled through their District 6-3A schedule earlier in the season.
Doyle brought a 15-game winning streak into the match up with Hannan, a program that has five state titles, including three in the last four years. Hannan won 9-3, but there was nothing to do but refocus.
In John Curtis, Doyle was facing the state鈥檚 most successful program of the last 20 years, one that has 12 state championships since 2003.
This time, not only was Doyle more competitive, the Tigers came up with the win as a three-run fifth inning fueled a 5-4 finish. The win left Doyle with a 20-5 record and, perhaps more importantly, a lot of confidence.
鈥淭his is huge against John Curtis,鈥 Doyle coach Kyle Wieck said. 鈥漌ith the history that they have, we knew they were great coming in.
鈥淭his is what we call our mettle-testing week, and we like to see how tough our mettle is. It's just a big win for these girls.鈥
Catcher Kylee Savant said the team took the Hannan loss hard and came back more determined to play hard against a Curtis team that was rated second in the Division I select rankings.
鈥淲e came off a hard loss against Hannan,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was a tough loss for the whole team, so today, we wanted to come back. We really wanted to win, and I think that showed.鈥
One of the keys to the win was the pitching of Ava Roussel. She worked around bases-loaded jams in the second and fifth innings and allowed only one run in five innings of work. All totaled, she stranded nine Curtis baserunners.
鈥淚t was a big day for us,鈥 Roussel said. 鈥淲e really needed the win for points and it was a big confidence booster for us, too. The defense was good, the hitting was good聽鈥 all around, it was a really good day for us.鈥
Center fielder Alyson Fletcher and third baseman Kassidy Rivero each came up big at the plate. Fletcher had RBI doubles in the first and fifth innings, and Rivero doubled home Doyle鈥檚 final two runs in the fifth.
Rivero also had a trio of diving stops in the field and ultimately got a tip of the cap from Curtis head coach Jerry Godfrey, who was in the third base coach鈥檚 box at the time.
It was that kind of day for Doyle as it builds momentum for the Division III nonselect playoffs.
