Above and Beyond: Top-seeded Brusly takes measures into own hands to pursue first title in 45 years
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Brusly believed it was primed for a shot at the Division II non-select state title a year ago, securing a No. 3 seed and home-field advantage.
The Panthers had dealt with the earlier loss of starting pitcher Drew Daigle to a UCL tear when they later found themselves without senior catcher Nick Bardwell because of a knee injury.
Following an opening-round bye, Brusly split the first two games of a state regional series with No. 14 Minden when the visitors handed the Panthers a 13-2 setback and ended their season.
“That was very disappointing for us last year,” Lemoine said. “We came in with the expectation to be a state champion. We had a good season and earned the three seed. We battled some severe injuries, we had to piece that together and we did.
“Experience is always the best teacher,” Lemoine said. “That group didn’t get to play (in the playoffs) the year before because of LHSAA sanctions. Last year when we made it, we had a bye in the first round and then played Minden. That was that group’s first time playing a real meaningful playoff game. It (loss) was pretty devastating, pretty unexpected. It took us a while to get over that.”
A week later coach Lemoine met with his returning players for the 2025 season and rekindled his inner Tim Tebow. The Florida quarterback had delivered a stirring speech 17 years ago later regarded as the ‘promise speech’ following a loss to heavy underdog Ole Miss, spurring the Gators to a national championship.
Lemoine had taken his own notes, reprising the address in the context of leading Brusly to the ’25 state championship.
“I can promise you; you’ll never have a coach that will coach harder than me this year,” Lemoine said. “I will hold all of you accountable. We will not feel this next year. I called out some players for a lack of leadership and told them it’s important to be accountable. You were given God-given abilities, and whether you want to be a leader or not, it’s a position that you’re in and you’ve got to own that.”
Off-season workouts began June 1 at 7 a.m. and set in motion a series of practices and games that covered a span of 293 days that have positioned Brusly, a three-time state champion, for an opportunity to win the school’s first state title in 45 years.
Top-seeded Brusly (33-5) faces No. 2 North DeSoto (27-13) in a best-of-three series for the Division II non-select state championship which begins at 2 p.m. Thursday at McMurry Park in Sulphur. The series continues at 2 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday, if necessary.
The Panthers were last in the state tournament in 2010, falling to Notre Dame of Acadia Parish in the Class 3A title game.
“We’ve had baseball workouts, practice, or games 293 days since then,” Lemoine said. “We’ve been getting after it with the ultimate goal to be a state champion. We’ve said the championship’s not won in May, it’s won in June and everything in between. It’s been our focus and anytime we may have strayed from that focus a little, we reminded them it was one day, one game, and one pitch at a time.”
After a sweep of Breaux Bridge in the regional round, North DeSoto has been extended to three games in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds to advance. The Griffins split their first two games last week with defending state champion Lutcher before taking a 3-2 victory.
“They have some really good arms,” Lemoine said of North DeSoto. “We belong here, and we’ve played very well, but nothing’s going to be easy, and it shouldn’t be. If you want to be a champion, you should have to beat the best. We need to make sure we’re playing our style of baseball and leave it all out there.
“If we play a very clean game and play to our capabilities and don’t let the moment get too big for us, we should be OK,” Lemoine said. “They’re very well coached with some good ball players. … probably the best arms we’ve seen in the playoffs.”
Brusly returned seven of nine starters and its entire pitching staff to try and atone for its earlier-than-expected exit from last year’s playoffs.
The core of that group are three-year starters with senior Drew Daigle, who suffered the UCL injury, earning Class 4A All-State honors as a sophomore. The Holmes (Miss.) Community College signee and senior center fielders Aiden Washington, a Mississippi College signee, and twin brothers, second baseman Josiah and first baseman Jeremiah Hogan, were joined by a talented group of juniors.
Nicholls State commitment Aubrey St. Angelo, a pitcher/shortstop, Coy Purpera, an outfielder/pitcher, and right-handed pitcher Brayden Ray have all given the Panthers production at the plate and on the mound.
Brusly won its first six games of the season and 17 of its first 18 with only a one-run defeat to Opelousas Catholic serving as the lone blemish over the first month of the season.
The Panthers dropped consecutive games for the only the time this season on April 14 and 15th – surrendering a four-run lead in an 8-5 loss to Ascension Christian followed by a 6-5 setback to Ascension Catholic.
Over the team’s final 14 games of the regular season, Brusly lost only to St. Charles (8-5) and to St. Michael the Archangel (4-3) in the District 6-4A tournament championship game.
“At the end of the regular season, we went through the schedule and talked about each game, the memories, the good, the bad, the ugly,” Lemoine said. “We lost all but two of our games by one run. We played a very consistent season and won in a variety of ways. We were capable of winning in a 1-0, 2-0 mode, but if we had to score 7-8 runs, we could do that also.”
An example of Brusly’s ability to rely on different templates in victories was on display in a three-game sweep of St. Louis Catholic, last year’s Division II select state runner-up. The Panthers took a pair of shutout wins 1-0 and 6-0 and captured a 10-6 victory in between.
Brusly has been up to the task against teams from Class 5A/4A with a 12-2 mark that included the one-run setback to St. Michael in the district tournament. The Panthers wound up the regular season with 28 wins and in much better health than a year ago.
To have his team focus on the path ahead, Lemoine shared the advice of former UL baseball coach Tony Robichaux when it came to preparing a mule to cultivate a field.
“He always talked about the mule and the blinders,” he said. “He said if you put a mule on a field without blinders, and ask him to plow that field, he’s going to get discouraged and maybe not feel like he can do it. But if you put the blinders on him, all he sees it’s what is in front of him and he’ll plow that field all day.
“I told the guys the ultimate goal is a state championship, but that’s way out there. That’s the whole field,” Lemoine said. “We’ve got to put blinders on and win the first practice, win the first game, win game two, and keep moving. In the playoffs we’ve shrunk that down to winning the first pitch, winning the second and third pitch whether it’s offense or defense and they’ve bought into that. They’re a good group of guys who work very hard. I felt we needed to get the emotional and psychological part fixed from last year and I felt like we did.”
Brusly’s hit a different gear in the postseason with three straight playoff sweeps.
“We’ve been fortunate to only use three pitchers last series,” Lemoine said.
Brusly’s registered one of its 14 shutouts and three of its 14 run-rule victories in the postseason, including a 26-4 romp over West Ouachita in the semifinal round.
“You want to be playing your best when you get to this point in the season,” Lemoine said. “In Game 1 (13-3 win), that was the best we’ve played with 18 hits, four homers, and everyone in the lineup had at least a hit. We really attacked the pitcher and had a great plan. In Game 2, we took advantage of their lack of control, and we were either hit or hit by pitch 12 times. We put together four or five hits.”
Brusly’s relied on an offense that’s hitting .331 with seven players in its regular lineup batting better than .300. The Panthers, who have 43 doubles, 18 triples, and 10 homers, have been creative in averaging nine runs a game with a team that’s stolen 266 of 279 bases this season.
“We play a certain style, it’s aggressive at times,” Lemoine said. “We do have a bit of speed, so if we can steal bases, we will. We feel that puts pressure on defenses. The offense is capable of small ball if we want. I wanted everyone 1-9 to be able to bunt the baseball. It doesn’t matter who you are, we need you. We work three days a week on push bunts, drag bunts, any kind of weapon we can put in our toolbox.”
Purpera’s .394 average is No. 1 on the team and is tied with St. Angelo with 40 RBIs. Purpera also has nine doubles, three homers, 35 runs scored and 23 stolen bases in 24 attempts. Daigle is next at .387 with five doubles, three triples, two homers, 45 runs scored, and a team-best 47 stolen bases.
Washington has a .385 average and a team-high 47 runs, a homer, 25 RBIs and has stolen 43 of 45 bases with St. Angelo (.364, 11 doubles, 5 triples, 4 homers, 39 runs), Ray (.337, 2 doubles, 28 RBIs), Josiah Hogan (.330, 7 doubles, 28 RBIs) and Jeremiah Hogan (.309, 23 RBIs, 35 of 37 stolen bases).
“We’re capable of hitting some balls out of the park, we’re capable of hitting balls gap to gap,” Lemoine said. “But if we need to, we’ll drag bunt and push bunt. If we get a walk, we can very well steal a base and force the issue and we’ve been very successful with that. The whole lineup kind of complements each other.”
Brusly has a team ERA of 1.533 fueled by the starting tandem of Ray and Daigle that have helped to make up for the loss of fellow starter Aiden Harris (4-1, 3.11 ERA) with a fractured elbow in March.
Ray, 17-2 over his career, is 10-1 with a save and 0.84 earned run average, striking out 45 with 15 walks in 75 innings. Daigle, who had surgery last May and has remained on a 50-60 pitch count, is 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA, 34 strikeouts and eight walks in 37.2 innings.
St. Angelo (2-1, 1.21, 30 Ks, 6 walks) got the most work after that duo with 29 innings with Brody Bourgoyne (5-0, 2.05, 13.2 innings), Purpera (3-0, 1.13, 12.1 innings) and Cade Rills (3-0, 1 save, 0.66, 21 innings, 12 Ks).
“We feel good about the pitchers we’ve used this season,” Lemoine said. “We had the one kid (Harris) who we lost, but Cade Rills stepped into his role. Brayden and Aubrey have gone deep into games for us, and Drew has come back and started and thrown well for us.”
Another area of the team Lemoine addressed before the start of the season was defense. Because he felt the team’s pitching could be a pillar of strength, he wanted to surround that group with a stellar defense that didn’t expand innings with sloppy play.
The result has been a team that’s put together a .949 fielding percentage and turned 54 double plays or almost 1 ½ per game.
Jeremiah Hogan leads the team in fielding (.995) with Ray (.993) right behind and the Hogan twins have combined for 29 of the team’s double plays.
“Before the season started, I sent a group text and said every team sort of takes on an identity,” Lemoine said. “I asked, ‘What do you guys want to hang your hat on every day when you get to the park? I had an idea of what I wanted it to be. When you play solid defense and you give up 0-1-2 runs every game, you have every chance to win that game. We can find a way to get one or two runs.
“They bought into that and the ERA’s below two,” Lemoine said. “The defense has been really solid except for the semifinals. We hung our hat on that (defense) because we knew every day we put on our uniform we could control that. You can’t control what another team’s pitcher is going to do. We know when we step on the field what our pitcher and defense can do and the stats kind of represent that.”