Back on Track: Doyle steadies itself in time to reach state quarterfinals
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
It had been 18 years since Doyle last played for a state championship when the Tigers of coach Tim Beatty became regulars in the final game of the season, reaching the Class 2A/Division III title game in four straight years.
Doyle showed every indication that this could possibly be the year for the school’s state championship. The Tigers won 23 of 24 games, alternated between first and second in the Division III nonselect power ratings, and were on the course to win the District 8-3A championship.
Then, over an 11-day span, the bottom nearly fell out.
Doyle had positioned itself for a dramatic one-run district win at Jewel Sumner until the homestanding Cowboys turned to their own version of theatre with a walk-off homer and 3-2 victory on March 31. A day later, a trip to Newman resulted in a 3-0 defeat.
The Tigers came up for air, atoned their loss to Sumner, with a 3-1 verdict at home before splitting a pair of league games with Pine – winning 7-3 at home and losing 10-2 on the road. They finished with an 11-1 defeat at home to Walker, the No. 7 seed that’s still alive in the Division I nonselect playoffs.
“We lost kind of a heartbreaker at Jewel Sumner for our second loss of the season,” Doyle baseball coach Tim Beatty, who is in his 18th season at the Livingston Parish school. “We were up 2-1 and put in our guy to get two outs in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded. Then in the seventh, we give up a flair, and I’m thinking they’re going to be bunting. We threw a fastball and they made a good swing at it and hit it out.
“We put our guy in there, hoping he’d get three outs and didn’t happen,” Beatty said. “We gave up a bomb to them to beat us on a walk-off. That kind of broke our backs a little bit, kind of got us down. The next day, we drove to New Orleans and saw a very good arm. He was light’s out, and we just couldn’t touch him. We learned a lot from it. Things that we had to do to beat a guy like that in the playoffs.”
Doyle shared the District 8-3A crown with Pine at 8-2, one game ahead of Jewel Sumner’s 7-3 mark. The Tigers dropped to No. 3 in the power rankings, earned a first-round bye before sweeping a best-of-three regional series from Church Point.
Doyle (27-5) looks to capitalize on its newfound momentum, hosting No. 6 Kinder (19-11) in a best-of-three Division III non-select state quarterfinal series with a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Saturday. The two teams are scheduled for a third game, if necessary, at noon on Sunday.
“We didn’t expect to go 23-1, that’s tough to do,” Beatty said. “We had to get out of that valley. It’s a game of peaks and valleys. I’m glad we experienced that little valley before the playoffs started. We had a tune-up game with Loranger. I saw a little more spunk and fire from our guys. Went out there and threw a lot of strikes and had some key at bats.
“We got that nasty taste out of our mouth, especially when we beat Jewel Sumner,” Beatty said. “Now we’re trying to stay in the best frame of mind that we can. We’re keeping the practices competitive and setting our sights on Kinder. I think we match up really well with them.”
The recipe of Doyle’s recent run of deep postseason success can be traced to the mound and infield.
The Tigers featured such standout all-State performers as pitchers Peyton Woods and Caiden Barcia, who were key figures in the state final appearances against Kinder (2019), Rosepine (2021, ’22), and Berwick (’23).
“We’ve been fortunate to have some good talent, some good baseball players,” Beatty said. “Not guys that are going to big schools. Just some solid guys.
“Our guys know what it’s about,” Beatty said. “It’s our goal to get there. It’s going to be a little tougher this year. I think we’re going to have a shot to make a deep run this year. I think we’ve got the team to do it.”
Doyle returned eight position players and seven pitchers – all right-handers – from last year’s 21-16 team that lost a Division III regional series, 2-1, at Jena. The year before, the Tigers were eliminated in the semifinals, 6-1, against South Beauregard.
“Since that loss we’ve preached, if we would have been a top 4, we would have been at home,” Beatty said of the series with Jena. “We play a lot better at home. We wouldn’t have to go on the road and face a good team on the road where it’s difficult to play, especially in the playoffs.”
A deep pitching staff with a 2.12 cumulative earned run average and .180 opponent’s batting average has provided the foundation of this year’s success. The team’s defense has been another strong suit, fielding at a .953 percentage with 39 errors in 825 total chances and 29 double plays.
Senior Parker Taylor, who was 9-1 with a 1.31 ERA in 2025, has been the anchor to that staff that’s been elevated by the performance of freshman Chandler Parker.
“He’s been our ace the last couple of years,” Beatty said of Taylor. “Chandler has given us some quality innings.”
Taylor, a commitment to Hinds (Miss.) Community College is 5-2 with a 2.44 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 37.1 innings, and Parker is also 5-2 with a 3.03 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 30 innings. Sophomore Zach Ray, also the team’s catcher when not on the mound, is the team’s No. 3 starter with a 4-0 record and one save. His ERA is 1.78 with 55 strikeouts in 39.1 innings.
The Tigers’ depth on the mound includes junior Judah Morales (5-1, 1.81 ERA, 29 Ks, 27 innings), senior Kellie Haven (3-0, 1.91 ERA, 17 Ks, 18.1 innings), and senior Braxton Stewart (0-0, 0.57 ERA, 16 Ks, 12.1 innings).
“We have three great starters and the other guys that fill the gaps and allow the starters to get a full week of rest and not have to have them back every four days,” Beatty said. “We have five guys that go out there and give us quality starts.”
Parker, who also plays shortstop, leads the team with nine double plays, while sophomore first baseman Cooper Yuratich has turned seven double plays and maintains a .975 fielding percentage. Sophomore third baseman/second baseman Brodie Keen has accounted for four double plays and a .920 fielding percentage, and Kayden McMorris leads the team with a .982 fielding percentage to go with five double plays.
Ray, who is second with 129 total chances, has fielded at a .977 clip.
“Our pitching’s kept us close, and we’re going to have that breakout inning and score some runs,” Beatty said. “We’ve had some quality at-bats, which you have late in the game and get us over the top. With our pitching, they’re going to keep us in the game.”
Doyle tries to provide a complementary offense that’s hitting .292 with 36 doubles and seven homers, but relies on aggressiveness on the base paths with 82 stolen bases, led by Jacksen McCaskill’s 12.
“In years past, one through six, we were pretty solid,” Beatty said. “I really like our one through nine guys. You never know who’s going to have a day, but it’s not always the same guy. We’re kind of relying on everybody.
Parker’s been at the top spot of the offense with a .308 average, four doubles, 16 RBIs, and nine stolen bases. Ray, who has five homers, is penciled in the cleanup spot and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with 21, along with Keen.
“Hopefully we can get some guys at the top on base, and he comes up and gets a big hit for us,” Beatty said of Ray.
McCaskill, a Southeast Arkansas commitment, leads the Tigers with a .333 average to go with five doubles, 20 RBIs, and 12 stolen bases. Junior center fielder Reese Jones follows with a .321 average, four doubles, two triples and eight RBIs and eight stolen bases, sophomore right fielder Brennan Guidry (.316, 7 RBIs), and Keen (.307, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 21 RBIs).
Seniors McCaskill, Taylor, and McMorris add experience and a veteran presence to the lineup.
“We’ve got multiple guys, and we move them around,” said Beatty, who’s assisted by pitching coach Ben Carlson and hitting coach Darrell Frasier. “We have some quality outfielders. We’re able to get a lot of guys playing time. Our infield’s been pretty set the whole season. We’re not counting one or two guys. We’re counting on all eight or nine throughout the lineup to make something happen.”
Doyle’s start included early-season wins over Notre Dame of Crowley, a Division III select quarterfinalist, a sweep of West Feliciana, a Division II nonselect quarterfinalist, and French Settlement, a Division III nonselect quarterfinalist.
The team’s lone setback in the first 1 ½ months of the season was a 7-6 loss at the hands of reigning Division III select state champion Catholic-New Iberia, which scored a run in the bottom of the seventh.
Doyle answered with a 21-game winning streak from Feb. 18 to March 31. They produced eight shutouts, 8 run-rule wins, and had three one-run victories.
“We are a little seasoned,” Beatty said. “It’s really prepared us later into the playoffs because we’ve established that we can win the close ones.”
Yuratich and McCaskill drove in runs for a 2-0 lead in Doyle’s first meeting with Jewel Sumner. Ray had thrown five scoreless innings, allowing one hit, when Beatty turned to Taylor in relief with the hope of closing the game out.
The Cowboys struck for a run in the sixth before a bloop hit preceded a two-run homer.
A terrific pitching performance from Newman handcuffed Doyle’s bats to the tune of two hits in a three-run road defeat.
“We were kind of in a funk,” Beatty said. “The spring break kind of helped with that. Anytime you take high school kids out of their routine, it just kind of messes them up.”
Parker helped to snap his team from its longest losing streak of the season with 14 strikeouts in a 3-1 victory at Sumner. Ray followed with another sensational pitching performance, allowing no earned runs on four hits in a complete game 7-3 victory with 11 strikeouts against Pine.
Taylor had two hits, and Guidry had two RBIs, and one was one of five players to drive in a run.
Pine took a 9-0 lead after three innings in the second matchup with Doyle, outhitting the Tigers, who were guilty of three errors. They also committed three errors in a run-rule defeat against Walker, which had nine hits against four pitchers that Beatty used to gain experience for the postseason.
“That same fire was missing, the spunk was missing,” Beatty said of his team’s final stretch of the regular season. “You have three seasons in high school baseball – the regular season, district, and postseason. We always look forward to getting to the postseason and hopefully making a run.”
Beatty said Parker’s performance helped impact the team’s performance against Loranger, the District 7-4A champion and Division II select quarterfinalist, which pitched Texas signee Hayes Holton for two innings.
The Tigers scored three runs in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead and added another run in the fifth for a 4-3 victory. Jace Stewart had two hits and drove in a run along with Jones.
“A team like Loranger is the kind of team we’re going to have to beat in the semis or the finals if we want to do this thing,” Beatty said.
Doyle rejuvenated itself during its bye ahead of its regional series with Church Point. The Tigers opened with an 8-2 victory and closed out the series 7-1 behind the starting pitching of Taylor, who allowed three hits and struck out nine in 5.1 innings. Stewart provided 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, walking two with a strikeout.
The Tigers’ 12-hit effort, which helped the team erupt for seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings, was led by McCaskill (3-3, 2B, RBI), Parker (2-4 with a homer and double, 3 RBIs, Yuratich (1-4, homer, 2 RBIs), and Keen (2-4).
“Pitching’s our backbone, that’s what we rely on heavily,” Beatty said. “If we can just go out there and score a few runs, I think our pitching’s going to always give us a chance there at the end of the game to win it. We didn’t hit it lights out. In the playoffs, hits are hard to come by.
“We just kind of outlasted their guy,” Beatty said. “Once we got a few hits, they were contagious, and we were able to score some runs. I’m just glad it (slump) happened at that point where we still had time in our season to suffer and survive and get through it.”