INCOMING — Doyle's Travis Bencaz slides into third base as St. Thomas Aquinas' Gabe Woods fields the throw in the third inning Tuesday. Woods tagged Bencaz out to end the inning, and STA rolled to an 11-2 win.

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach John Legoria was concerned about his team's offense following Tuesday's 20-run explosion against French Settlement.

Legoria's hitters put those concerns to rest, cranking out 10 hits as the Falcons (12-6-1, 2-0) drubbed Doyle 11-2, Thursday in District 9-2A. Eight of STA's runs came during two, two-out rallies.

"We got a lot of two-out hits today, which is big in baseball," Legoria said. "We got the lead and got kind of relaxed. We could've put it away earlier. We did what we needed to do."

Meanwhile, French Settlement recovered from Tuesday's shelling, knocking off Springfield (12-3, 1-1) 12-3.

"They came out and swung the bats," Springfield head coach Tony Salim said. "We walked a few guys early on and they were able to take advantage."

As for this afternoon, Ponchatoula hops back into league competition when it heads to Mandeville. The Green Wave remain perfect in district after opening 10-5A with wins against Covington and Northshore.

"They've got a great club," Ponchatoula head coach Mark Gosnell said of Mandeville. "They can do it all. They've got some power, they've got some speed and they've got some arms on the mound."

First pitch in Mandeville is slated for 6:30 p.m.

@Agate:<*Cz10>DISTRICT 9-2A

<*Jz9>St. Thomas Aq. 11, Doyle 2

Doyle (7-9, 0-2) plated a run in the top of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead, but a two-out rally in the bottom of the second inning put an end to that.

Gemelle Washington took Tigers' starting pitcher Tyler Cotton deep to left for a solo home run to tie the game. Cotton plunked Daniel Huggett, and Gabe Woods followed it up with a base knock to center. Huggett scored on Jacob Trapani's single to center, and the Falcons pulled a double steal to move Woods to third and Trapani to second.

The double steal paid off as Ryan Downing doubled to center to drive in Woods and Trapani to give STA a 4-1 lead at the end of two.

"The home run hurt," Doyle head coach Anthony McMasters said. "We had two outs. They seemed liked they got a couple of Texas Leaguers to fall, and they backed those up with a clean hit or we mixed in a walk or something like that."

The Tigers cut into the lead in the top of the third inning. Falcons starter Logan Shaver walked Logan Jones and Travis Bencaz. Jones reached third while Bencaz advanced to second on Cotton's groundout to second. Jones scored as Dustin McLin grounded out to third, but the inning ended as Bencaz was tagged out trying to advance to third. Doyle ended their half of the third down 4-2.

The Falcons picked on Cotton again in the bottom of the third inning. Russell Pellichino led off with a walk, stole second and reached third on a wild pitch before scoring on Trey Marino's bloop single. Blake Brooks drew a walk, Washington singled to left to drive in Marino. Huggett's bunt loaded the bases.

Doyle put Bencaz on the mound in relief of Cotton, and Woods' sac fly to center scored Brooks, increasing the lead to 7-2 after three innings.

"We didn't help ourselves, and they did a good job of capitalizing on stuff we didn't help ourselves with," McMasters said.

STA went on another two-out rally in the bottom of the fourth. Shaver led off with a walk and Brandon Porciau came on to run for him. Bencaz struck out Pellichino and Marino before Brooks doubled to left to drive in Porciau. Brooks reached third on a botched pickoff move, and Bencaz walked Washington. Brooks and Washington scored as Huggett doubled off the left field wall. Woods followed by doubling down the left field line to bring in Huggett, increasing the lead to 11-2.

Shaver picked up the win, pitching a complete game while striking out 11 Doyle batters and giving up one hit.

"Logan Shaver threw probably one of the best games I've seen in a long time, and I've had some pretty good pitching performances," Legoria said. "He was bringing it. His curve ball was as nasty as I've seen in a long time."

<*Rz7>-Reported by Fred Batiste