The District 10-3A race could come down to one game today while the lead in 9-2A belongs to Pope John Paul thanks to an abbreviated win on Monday.

The Jaguars got a quick 3-2 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas in a continuation from Friday's rain out. STA pitching walked the first two batters it faced to walk in the winning run. The game resumed in the bottom of the seventh with PJP runners at first and second.

"Not much I can say," STA head coach John Legoria said. "All I will say is they played better than us and they deserved to win."

In 10-3A, Loranger (17-10, 6-0) plays host to a red-hot Amite (9-7, 5-1) team that reeled off four-straight league wins heading into today’s action. The Wolves sit in first place in the district standings with three more games left in the regular season after today. Amite looks to avenge a 6-3 loss to the Wolves a month ago in order to force a tie atop the standings.

“Obviously, we’re one right now and they’re two, and they’re trying to do whatever they can tomorrow to play well and get on top of us,” Loranger head coach Jason Helmstetter said. “They’re looking for a win. If they beat us and we both finish undefeated in these last games, you’re looking at a playoff tie for first. It’s obviously a huge game for us.”

Albany (6-18, 3-3), which hosts Independence (1-16, 0-5), sits in third place. In other 10-3A action, Sumner (4-9, 2-4) travels to take on Bogalusa (2-7, 1-4).

Warriors head coach Jasper Bryant said his team has matured over the course of the regular season, and a win over Loranger can go a long way toward Amite’s playoff hopes.

“We’ve grown a lot,” Bryant said. “We have three or four freshmen playing on a regular basis, and they’re looking a lot better. We need to get as many wins as we can get and try to get as high of a seed as we can.”

Steven Mercier will take the hill for Amite. Bryant said his team will have to play good defense and not make mistakes on the base paths - like the two times Warrior baserunners were picked off base in their earlier loss to the Wolves.

“We had two kids get picked off, and we lost 6-3,” Bryant said. “We have to play smarter on the bases.”

The Wolves are coming off a non-district doubleheader split with Notre Dame Saturday, falling to the Pioneers 4-3 in the first game and blanking the Pios 1-0 in the second game.

Helmstetter said his team is prepared for the stretch run after the double-dip against the Pios, and his players have not lost interest in taking on the Warriors.

“All we want to do is be district champs,” he said. “We know they have a few good athletes, and they’re going to be tough to beat.”

The Wolves will start Brandon Robicheaux on the mound against Amite. Helmstetter said the defense will have to play well behind Robicheaux because he is not a strikeout pitcher. Offensively, Loranger has to get runners on base early and often to put pressure on Amite’s defense.

“When we get on the bags, we’re pretty aggressive,” he said. “We’re going to have to score every inning if we want to win.”

In District 7-5A, Hammond (8-13, 0-7) entertains St. Paul’s (13-9, 4-4) while Ponchatoula (15-6, 5-2) heads to Covington (14-8, 4-3) in a key district clash.

Ponchatoula’s 9-3 loss to Northshore (15-11, 6-2) over the weekend gives the Panthers one more league win than the Greenies and Slidell (10-6-1, 5-2) atop the 7-5A standings. Covington sits one game back of the pace while St. Paul’s and Mandeville (10-7, 4-4) are two games off the lead.

Other area baseball action includes St. Thomas Aquinas (17-6-1, 7-0) playing host to Springfield (14-6, 3-4) in 9-2A while Holden (5-9, 2-0) travels to take on Maurepas (14-3, 1-0) in 9-B play.

In local softball action, the Albany Lady Hornets (23-10, 9-0) go for a perfect 10-3A season as they entertain Sumner (22-10, 7-2) while Independence hosts Loranger.

Notre Dame 4, Loranger 3

CROWLEY—In game one, each team took advantage of mistakes to push runs across in the first inning. Taylor Abdalla reached on an error with two outs, stole second and scored on Kyle Wheeler’s single to give Loranger a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, leadoff hitter Ryan Leandro was hit by a pitch, stole second and third before tying the game on Matt Savoie’s base hit.

Loranger regained the lead in the top of the fifth as Tyler Kendrick base hit with the bases loaded drove in two and gave the Wolves a 3-1 lead. That two-run lead was short-lived as the Pios stormed back in the bottom of the fifth.

Leonardo went yard for a solo home run, and Notre Dame capitalized on a throwing error to tie the game at 3-3 after five innings.

The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh, when Leonardo ended the game with a walk-off double to score Robey Sarver for the win.

-Reported by Gary Lee

Loranger 1, Notre Dame 0

CROWLEY—Abdalla dominated the Pios in the second game, throwing a no-hitter with nine strikeouts. However, Notre Dame used three pitchers to stifle Loranger’s lineup through the first four innings

Jake Artigue led off the fifth inning by legging out a triple before Blake Bradley drove him in with a single.

-Reported by Gary Lee