Hammond's District 7-5A drought continued — and so did Ponchatoula's recent struggles — while Loranger and Albany played long ball to score a pair of key wins in District 10-3A in area prep baseball Tuesday.

Loranger’s stranglehold on the District 10-3A race got a little tighter Tuesday night as the Wolves (18-10, 7-0) pounded out 13 hits and got a dominating performance from senior pitcher Brandon Robicheaux as they stifled Amite for the second time this season, 11-1, in Loranger.

The win keeps the Wolves atop the 10-3A standings and gives them a two-game lead over the Warriors (9-8, 5-2).

“It was huge,” Loranger coach Jason Helmstetter said of the win. “Our goal all week has been to win this one no matter what happens.”

Meanwhile, in Albany, the Hornets overcame a 5-4 Independence lead on a three-run homer by Chad Dickerson and defeated the Tigers 7-4. For Albany (8-18, 4-3), which hosts Sumner on Thursday, it was a crucial victory for the Hornets’ playoff hopes.

"I told our guys, if you want to do something special, today and Thursday are must-wins," Hornets coach Chad Goulas said. "If you want to go to the playoffs, you must win tonight and you must win Thursday. And even when we were down 5-4, I don't think anybody on our team didn't believe we would win."

Goulas said it wasn't easy.

"It was a well-played game all the way around," Goulas said, saluting the Tigers' effort. "(Coach Sporty Davis) has come a long way with his team. I know they've had a struggling season, but they were much improved. Those guys did a heckuva job against us."

In 7-5A, however, Hammond's bid to break into the win column was scuttled as St. Paul's rolled to an 11-2 victory at the Tors’ diamond. And it wasn't any better for Ponchatoula, which dropped a 2-1 decision at Covington, one night after losing their makeup game at Fontainebleau 3-2.

In District 9-2A, meanwhile, St. Thomas Aquinas (17-7, 8-1) bounced back from its loss to Pope John Paul by pounding Springfield (14-7, 3-5) into submission with an 11-2 five-inning rout. The Falcons crushed five home runs in the game, scoring eight of their runs off of dingers.

"Today, the guys really focused and came out and swung the bats really well," STA head coach John Legoria said. "Five home runs, I haven't seen that in a long time."

Neither had Springfield head coach Tony Salim.

"I told the kids after the game that I wasn't mad at them, because we didn't make any errors and we hit the ball hard," Salim said. "They scored 11 runs off of nine or 10 hits. Sometimes, that's baseball and you can't control all of those home runs."

DISTRICT 7-5A

St. Paul’s 11, Hammond 2

St. Paul’s scored six runs in the second off of five hits and two Hammond errors to take command. The Wolves added four more in the third off of two hits, an error, and two walks to make it 10-0 and they added their final run in the fourth.

Hammond plated its two runs in the fourth when Koty Miller reached on an error, and Shelby Payne singled. St. Paul's misplayed Payne's single, allowing Miler to score, and another Wolves error on Jeremy Skinner's grounder scored Payne.

Alex Wolf came on in relief of starter Lucas Quebedeaux in the fifth for Hammond and threw three shutout innings, allowing only an infield single and a walk while striking out three.

Hammond collected four hits, with Payne going 2-for-2 and Quebedeaux and Zack Edwards getting the others for Hammond, which will attempt to make up its twice-postponed game at Fontainebleau on Wednesday.

DISTRICT 9-2A

St. Thomas Aq. 11, Springfield 1 (5 in.)

Springfield took the lead in the top of the first when Tim Hutchinson led off with a ground-rule double and scored on Cole McKigney's base hit off Falcons starter Cody Durham. However, STA roared back with two outs in the bottom of the first. Ryan Downing singled, Russell Pellichino walked and Blake Brooks took Springfield starter Justin Bryson deep to left for a three-run home run to give STA a 3-1 lead.

"The big thing was they came out red-hot and we answered with a three-spot in the first inning," Legoria said. "The home run by Blake was huge because it kind of took all of their steam from the top of the first inning."

The Falcons got two more homers in the second inning as Trey Marino and Daniel Huggett went yard to increase the lead to 5-1. Pellichino took Bryson deep to center for a solo shot before Marino singled in Brooks in the third inning to give STA a 7-1 lead.

STA put on the finishing touches in the fourth. Gabe Woods doubled before Downing crushed a two-run shot to left. Pellichino was hit by a pitch, moved to third on Brooks’ double, and both scored on Logan Shaver's two-run single to make it 11-1.

Durham allowed one run and four hits while striking out seven. Brooks went 3-for-3 with five RBI.

—Reported by Fred Batiste

DISTRICT 10-3A

Loranger 11, Amite 1

LORANGER—Robicheaux pitched all six innings, allowing one run on one hit with two walks and no strikeouts.

Robicheaux got timely hits in the final three innings as Loranger transformed 2-1 lead into a lopsided contest. Josh DePhillips and Kyle Wheeler did most of the damage, combining to go 5-for-6 with eight RBI. DePhillips’ two-run homer to left capped a five-run fourth inning in which the Wolves finally got to Amite’s Steven Mercier.

“They have a real good ball club and all you can do is tip your cap to them,” Amite head coach Jasper Bryant said. “You could see that the second and third time through the lineup they started seeing (Mercier) a little better.”

Mercier allowed another run in the fifth, leaving after giving up a pair of singles and an error that loaded the bases. Reliever Jordan Wilkinson surrendred a double to Kyle Wheeler and a two-run single to Tyler Kendrick to end the game.

Amite’s only offense came in the third when Wilkinson reached on an error, Mercier was hit by a pitch, and Kyle Bracey sacrificed them to second and third. Chris Petitto then hit a towering fly to center that scored Wilkinson. The Warriors’ lone hit came in the fifth on Mercier’s bloop single to center.

—Reported by Justin Robicheaux

Albany 7, Independence 5

ALBANY—After Indy scored two in third, Albany got within 2-1 in its half, then Denny Dansby hit a two-run homer int he second for Albany to give the Hornets a 4-2 lead.

In the top of the fifth, Indy's Chris Carter delivered an inside-the-park homer to make it 4-3, and the Tigers scored twice in the top of the sixth for 5-4 lead and had the bases loaded with one out. Tyler Degenhardt relieved starter Ryan Milton and got a pop-up for the second out before the Hornets threw a runner out at the plate trying to score on a passed ball for third out.

Albany's winning rally began with two quick outs in the sixth before Justin McKnight walked and Brennan Smith singled. Dickerson then launched his three-run homer for what proved to be the winning runs.

Shane Denney added an RBI triple for the Hornets.

MONDAY'S RESULT

DISTRICT 7-5A

Fontainebleau 3, Ponchatoula 2

MANDEVILLE—David Fiegel's infield single scored Matt Pittari in the bottom of the eighth as Fontainebleau outlasted Ponchatoula 3-2 in Monday's makeup contest.

Addison Melancon handcuffed Ponchatoula's offense, allowing just four hits, while striking out eight and walking four. Ponchy's Regis Stephens didn't fare too bad himself, surrendering two earned runs on 10 hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Ponchy broke on top in the first as Tyler Nelson reached on an error and scored on Derrick Gaudin's RBI ground out. The Bulldogs tied the score in their half of the inning when Daniel Brockhoeft doubled and scored on an outfield error.

The Green Wave regained the lead in the third when Gaudin and Torin Lucas walked and moved up on a fielder's choice. Ponchy then pulled off a first-and-third double steal as pinch runner Dylan Hills scored while Welch intentionally got caught in a rundown attempting to steal second.

The Bulldogs answered in the bottom of the third when Colton Atkins singled and Broeckhoeft tripled to right-center to tie the game at 2-all.