Inspiration from within: A year after a national crown, Catholic High aims to push bar higher
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Catholic High’s championship pedigree in baseball began 72 years ago with the school’s first state title. The Bears waited 23 years to win another, followed by a 35-year stretch when they obtained a third crown.
Catholic was more prompt in adding to its trophy case with a state title three years later, before ending an 11-year span to annex its fifth state title with No. 6 taking place last season after three seasons.
Last season proved unforgettable when for the first time Catholic High was crowned national champions by several national media outlets, including MaxPreps and Perfect Game, and finished with a 38-2 record.
Four players from that team were named to the Class 5A All-State first team with top honors going to pitcher William Schmidt, the state’s Outstanding Player, and Brad Bass, the state’s Coach of the Year.
“That’s something that can never be taken away from you,” Catholic senior catcher Andrew Clapinski, one of the team’s all-state selections. “That’s something I’ll look back on in 20-30 years whenever my playing career’s done and that will still be up there with my best accomplishments. It’s something super special. It’s very neat that not a lot of people get to do.”
Given the success of Catholic’s program that’s also been a state runner-up seven times, it’s difficult in the glow of a national championship season to identify another target that brings everyone together for a common goal.
The Bears managed to find one such objective during the offseason and have maintained their focus on becoming the first team in school history to win consecutive state championships.
Top-seeded Catholic (35-5) begins that quest in a best-of-three game Division I select state championship series against third-seeded Brother Martin (31-6) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at McMurry Park in Sulphur. The series continues at 5:30 on Friday and at 5:30 on Saturday, if necessary.
“A big thing at Catholic is tradition,” Catholic shortstop Jack Ruckert, another first-team all-state choice a year ago. “Everywhere in every classroom or building, it’s all about tradition. Last year was amazing and all of those seniors gave so much and all of the alumni who have built this program on their backs. We’re just trying to do the same and keep the winning tradition going, finish strong, and do something that’s never been done which is back-to-back state titles. We can’t wait for the opportunity.”
Brother Martin provides the opposition, battling Catholic League rival Holy Cross for a 2-1 win in their state semifinal series. The Crusaders are in search of their first state title since 1996.
“I think we’re trending,” Bass said. “I still don’t think we’ve played our best baseball. We’ve been chasing this perfect game, and while we know that’s not attainable, excellence is. The goal is to have excellence in our effort, our attitude, excellence in our attention to detail, and chase that perfect game. I still think the best is yet to come for our team.”
The return of Ruckert, Clapinski, and center fielder Noah Lewis provided Catholic with a decided advantage in its task to avoid complacency.
The aforementioned trio was part of another large senior class of 13 players that included six returning starters from a team that graduated such standouts as Schmidt, a first-team All-American, to LSU, along with Trip Dobson and Brooks Wright to UL-Lafayette.
“This year’s our senior year and we want to go out with a bang,” Lewis said. “We’ve all stepped up to be true leaders for the younger guys. Our goal is a state championship. We want to leave a legacy here and we’re trying to do something that’s never been done here before.”
Bass credited his seniors with creating their own path instead of living in the one created by last year’s senior class that provided such strong leadership.
“They weren’t trying to be someone they weren’t. They weren’t trying to be last year’s team,” he said. “They were trying to figure out the identity of this year’s team and that’s just maturity and leadership at its finest. This is a new year, and we have our own goals.”
“This school has never gone back-to-back and that’s not something they wanted to run from; it was something they wanted to run to,” he said. “They wanted to make their own legacy here and ’24 certainly has a wonderful legacy, but this senior class wants to be remembered for being the only team in our history that ever went back-to-back.”
Ruckert, Lewis, and Michael Griggs are seniors who have attended Catholic since the eighth grade, providing them with an additional year of perspective. With the Bears heading back to Sulphur for a 10th consecutive trip, this year’s seniors have won 89% (140-17) of their games with the opportunity to become the school’s winningest class and win a third state championship during their careers.
“It’s been a great year, but we’re not finished yet,” said Ruckert, an LSU signee. “The biggest thing I keep thinking about is that it would be amazing to go back-to-back and finish my senior year, and our legacy, with three state championships and being the winningest senior class to come through Catholic.”
Lewis felt such strength in numbers would be beneficial for this team, providing a strong voice in the locker room and guidance on the field.
“We have a lot of starters from last year, so it was easy for us to bond and get everybody close,” said Lewis, a UL-Lafayette signee. “We had some juniors that hadn’t been on the varsity team. It was easy for the seniors to lead those younger guys to get them to realize the ultimate goal is to win a state championship. I feel like everyone’s locked into our goal.”
Catholic surged into postseason play a year ago and won its last 20 games including a 5-0 shutout of John Curtis in the final game.
The Bears had a robust offense with a .349 batting average, 8.7 runs a game, and 132 stolen bases. That complimented a star-studded pitching staff led by Schmidt and Ryder Loup that had a team ERA of 1.15.
One of the luxuries that benefitted Catholic this season was the wealth of experienced players that were back and also included senior left fielder Davis Emonet, second baseman Edward Henriquez and first baseman Orlando Henriquez.
“We knew coming into the year we had a lot of our lineup back and we were going to lean on that experience in the big games,” Ruckert said. “All of the ups and downs in a season, we’ve been there before, and we knew what to expect.”
Bass was also able to fill out his lineup card with junior right fielder Harrison Kidder and a combination of junior Mills Richardson and freshman Myles Auxt at third base when Richardson pitched. Junior Lucas Lawrence, who made a splash on the mound, was the team’s designated hitter.
The Bears have batted .335, averaged 8.45 runs a game, stolen 159 bases, and have another strong ERA at 1.83.
“That’s a credit to (hitting coach) Michael Billings, who won a title under Kyle Achord at Catholic, and has been here for 15 years,” said Bass, now in his 14th season. “He’s been so consistent with our offense. He loves working with young people and gets the most out of our hitters.
“(Pitching coach) Tyler Naquin has been incredible with what he’s done with our pitching staff,” Bass said. “The question mark coming into the season was whether the depth of our pitching staff had enough experience to pitch in big games. One of the strengths of our team over the course of the year has been the depth of our pitching staff. Along with Jake Clouatre, it’s just an all-star staff and I’m just blessed to have them.”
One of this season’s litmus tests for Catholic came in its first road trip to West Monroe, the defending Division I non-select state champions. The Bears faced a three-game series similar in format to the one they’ll encounter against Brother Martin with three games spread over three days.
The result?
The Bears defeated the Rebels in all three games by a combined score of 32-8.
“The West Monroe series was our first real big test,” Ruckert said. “We were up for it. Our dugout was amazing. We were all gelling really well. We stayed at a hotel together and took bus rides together. That’s when we came together for the first time. We got away from Baton Rouge and got to bond as a team somewhere else.”
Catholic opened the season with seven straight wins that included a pair of wins against Thibodaux until Northwestern State left-handed signee Brody Trosclair handed the Bears their first loss, 2-1, on Feb. 22.
“We’re going to get everybody’s best arm; we’re going to get everybody’s best game,” said Clapinski, an LSU Eunice signee. “We kind of took on the motto of playing every game like it was a state championship game because that’s pretty much how every team was treating it. We know we have to come out on our ‘A’ game every day and just be ready to go.”
A big component in last year’s national championship resume’ was Catholic’s ability to leave its home state and compete favorably with some of the nation’s top teams.
This year’s lone out-of-state venture took the Bears to Biloxi, Miss. for tournament play with resounding results – a 4-0 showing by a combined score of 35-7 – against teams from Lucedale, Miss., Hattiesburg, Miss. Gulf Shores, Ala. and Birmingham, Ala.
Division I non-select finalist Live Oak, the top-seeded team, took two of three from Catholic with the Bears salvaging the middle game of the series, 5-1, and were 9-3 through the first month of the season.
“When we came in the expectations were through the roof,” Bass said of this season. “We have a saying that you never lose, you either win or you learn. To be able to take all of those learning opportunities and translate them into good shows how battle-tested these guys are for whatever comes their way. It’s because of some of the experiences they had through the early part of the season.”
Clapinski believed direction from the team’s leaders helped during that stretch.
“At the beginning of the season, we kind of hit a wall,” he said. “It was tough trying to figure out who we were and trying to find our identity as a team. With the senior leadership we had, we kind of got through the bumps along the road quickly and were able to catch fire midway through the season and haven’t really slowed down since.”
Catholic never lost consecutive games this season. The Bears have also enjoyed long stretches of success with winning streaks of 11, 8, 7, and currently 7 games.
“100% of the credit has to go to the players,” Bass said. “It’s tough to come off a special year and so many things tend to go wrong early, and they did. That’s a credit to the toughness of our players. There was a time in the season when we were kind of caught who we were and who we were going to be. That was a tough transition, and our guys were still able to band together and get through it.”
The Bears won 15 of their last 17 games of the regular season with losses to Belen Jesuit of Miami (5-3) and Zachary (1-0) which stopped the team’s bid for an undefeated District 4-5A championship.
Clapinksi is Catholic’s top hitter with a .462 average, 13 doubles, six homers and 40 RBIs. He’s also been invaluable working with the pitching staff and controlling the opposition’s running game.
“I see myself as a leader of the team,” he said. “If guys stray off the path or get away from the goal, we have to rein them back in and this group’s made my job pretty easy. Everybody’s in it for one goal and it’s made my job as a leader very easy.”
Lawrence, a 6-foot-5 junior who’s committed to Southern Mississippi, has been an impactful first-year starter at the plate and on the mound. He’s the second leading hitter with a .415 batting average, a homer, and 14 RBIs, and has been the team’s lead pitcher in the playoffs, throwing a four-hit shutout in a 4-0 shutout of John Curtis in Game 1 of the state quarterfinals. He’s 8-2 with a 1.22 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 57.1 innings.
Emonet, an LSU Eunice signee, bats .381 with six doubles, a triple, 20 RBIs, and 15 stolen bases, while Ruckert’s coming off a huge semifinal series where he was 4-of-5 with three homers, four RBIs and successfully reached base seven times. The left-handed batter has increased his average to .373 with 48 runs scored and team-highs of seven homers, 41 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases.
Lewis, the team’s leadoff hitter, bats .345 with 42 runs, 10 doubles, four triples, three homers, 29 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases and combines with Emonet and Kidder to give the Bears a solid outfield.
“This offense is special,” Lewis said. “We have guys through the lineup that can do a job. We’ve got guys that have stepped up big for us this year.”
Kidder has gone from a player who wasn’t on last year’s roster to batting in the coveted clean-up role, hitting .330 with six doubles, two homers, 31 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases. Edward Henriquez, who is headed to Alvin (Texas) Community College along with his brother Orlando, is also above the .300 plateau at .322 with four doubles and 26 RBIs. Orlando has produced an average of .291 with five doubles and 21 RBIs.
Senior Chase Harris, who has a .302 average and 12 RBIs in 63 plate appearances, has been a valuable asset on the base paths as a pinch-runner and is fifth in runs scored with 24 and is tied with Kidder for fourth with 16 steals.
“We’ve had guys coming through to make this team a very complete roster and being able to win in all phases,” Ruckert said. “Having that senior leadership, that experience has been big all year.”
Richardson, a junior right-hander, is 8-1 with a 2.68 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 44.1 innings, but the Bears’ depth has been a key. They’ve gotten solid performances over the course of the season from juniors Hayes Segar (3-0, 1 save, 1.30 ERA, 26 Ks, 27 innings) and Tanner Forbes (2-0, 0.93 ERA, 14 Ks in 22.2 innings), and seniors Jake Tompkins (0-1, 1.65 ERA, 16 Ks, 17 innings) and Bennett Smith (3-0, 1.83 ERA, 14 Ks in 15.1 innings).
“We’ve had to rely on more guys than we did last year,” Clapinski said. “Schmidt would go seven last year; Ryder would do what he does every weekend and that made it easy on our pitching staff. They’ve done a great job of being themselves and have not tried to fill the shoes that were left from last year. They’ve done a good job of filling up the zone with strikes and giving us chances to win games.”
Catholic is focused on the final goal, one that would not only put them in rarified air in school history but result in its third state title in four years. That would elevate the Bears into a tie for 11th place all-time with their seventh state crown.
“In this program, you don’t get a shot at doing something that’s never been done too often. It’s rare,” Ruckert said. “It’s something we’ve put our mind to. We don’t talk about it a ton. Everyone knows what we want to do and what we’re going after. It’s all about putting in the work every day, all of us together, and trying to go accomplish that.”