OCS Back in Contentions
BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
There perhaps weren’t that many who thought the Opelousas Catholic softball team would reach this point in the postseason.
After all, the Vikings started this year with only three starters returning from a 2024 state championship team.
However putting all the early conjecture aside, OCS is back in contention for another state championship appearance with a young team that is 22-8 and assured of a Division IV-select quarterfinal contest later this week.
The second-seeded Vikings, who have won 14 of the last 15 games, moved closer to defending a state title after defeating St. Edmund 10-0 in five innings Monday at Scotty Speyrer Memorial Field.
OCS is scheduled to play the quarterfinal against either No.7 Sacred Heart-Ville Platte or 10th-seeded Glenbrook in Opelousas to qualify for a tournament appearance – the third in four seasons.
Vikings’ head softball coach Cullen Matherne said it’s a different experience this year after coaching a program that lost six starters.
“There was never a thought about rankings. It was more the feeling of let’s just go out and see how good we can be by April,” Matherne said.
Despite that notion, at one point in 2025 the Vikings were 8-7 after an important district loss to district champion Sacred Heart.
Then Matherne said, everything seemed to change.
“Following that loss, it seems like we flipped the script and we have been playing our best ball of the season. I think our girls decided that the way we were playing wasn’t good enough and everything including our hitting improved. Now we’re locked in,” Matherne added.
On Monday returning all-state pitcher Ashley Little played a key role in the shortened game, striking out 11, hitting a solo home run and then adding a two-out, third-inning double.
“It was overall a good day,” said Little, who has over 840 career strikeouts and 201 this season.
Little has a variety of pitches, but on Monday the Vikings’ senior and Nicholls State signee said it was her rise ball that proved most effective.
St. Edmond softball coach Nicole Lanthier agreed.
“(Little) used the riser and she made us chase it out of the zone,” said Lanthier.
The Blue Jays recorded four hits off Little. SEHS leadoff hitter Caroline Lavergne had two of those, but no Jays’ base runner advanced beyond second.
OCS meanwhile established a 7-0 second inning lead, an advantage that Lanthier felt was probably too substantial for the Jays to overcome.
At the end of five, OCS had collected nine hits, with Little, Kale Lormand and Grace Luna recording doubles and sophomore first baseman Jordan White hitting a two-run homer in the second.
The Vikings also featured 15 baserunners, with all but two reaching scoring position.
