Despite youth, CCHS has reached 20 wins this season

The Central Catholic Lady Eagles softball team may feature a lineup dominated by underclassmen, including multiple eighth graders, but that hasn’t stopped the Lady Eagles from overall achieving success this season.
To date, Central Catholic has a 20-8 mark, including a 9-2 record in District 7-1A action.
All of the Lady Eagles’ losses have come to teams ranked in the top 10 of either their classes or divisions.
“Our young players have really stepped up and played important roles for our team this year, both offensively and defensively,” First-year Central Catholic Coach Linda Sanders said.
The Lady Eagles entered this season having to replace four Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 1A All-State selections from a year ago — first-team pick Taylor Picou, who now is playing at Delta State University, and honorable mention selections Kelly Russo, Sarah Thomas and Kaleigh Navarro.
On this year’s squad, senior centerfielder Brooke Lipari was the lone returning Lady Eagle to earn first- or second-team All-District honors a year ago as she was a second-team utility selection in 2018.
Lipari, along with her twin sister, third baseman Bailee Lipari, are the lone senior starters on this year’s Lady Eagle squad.
The squad starts no juniors and has two sophomores, shortstop Haley Fontenot and catcher Rylie Jeau Theriot.
The Lady Eagles have three pitchers this season, and all three are freshmen. They are Hallie Crappell, Olivia Black and Alanni Landry.
“Having three ninth-grade pitchers is a blessing,” Sanders said last month. “Having those three young pitchers will take us a long way, not just this year but in years to come.”
Other starters for the Lady Eagles are Landry at first base, eighth grader Amaya Williams at second, eighth grader Emily Lipari in leftfield, freshman right fielder Shelby Mabile, who also can play catcher, and eighth grade designated player Hailee Skiles.
Seventh grader Kamille Lightfoot, who is a courtesy runner, can play in the outfield, too, Sanders said.
This year, the Lady Eagles have played 30 games thus far with 32 on the schedule. The Lady Eagles actually had more games than that scheduled, but an early season tournament at Terrebonne was rained out.
“I’m a coach that likes to play a lot of games to build up, to prepare to get to the state tournament and hopefully win a state championship,” she said last month. “They were a little shocked about my schedule, to play so many games this year. I like to play a lot of games and play a lot of good competition.”