It just means more: With an eye on the SEC, Catholic High pitcher Lucas Lawrence chooses Ole Miss
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
For a year, while watching All-American and future LSU signee William Schmidt help to lead Catholic High’s baseball team to a Division I select state championship and first national in 2024, then sophomore Lucas Lawrence watched with great intent.
There was a great mound presence from Schmidt, the ability to thrive in high-leverage moments, and more importantly, the skill to lead others by example.
Those were among the responsibilities awaiting Lawrence heading into his first full season as Catholic’s No. 1 starter, a challenge he met head-on, propelling the Bears to their second consecutive Division I select state championship.
The 6-foot-5, 195-pound Lawrence, a senior left-hander, will also follow Schmidt’s lead from Catholic to the Southeastern Conference with his recent commitment to Ole Miss. He was previously pledged to Southern Mississippi for nine months until a successful summer pitching in top showcase events resulted in a change of heart.
“I really loved it, really liked the coaches,” Lawrence said of USM. “It felt like a good decision at the time. I went through the season and summer. I went to East Coast Pro (collection of the top players from the Eastern half of the country) and Area Code Games. I realized that I competed with the best of the best in the country.
“There’s no better place to do that than the SEC,” Lawrence said. “I felt that’s where I belonged and that’s where I wanted to pitch since I was little. I re-opened my process in the middle of August. I had a couple of SEC schools reach out and went on a visit to Ole Miss on Aug. 30 and loved it and committed a couple of days later.”
Lawrence, a first-team member of the Louisiana Baseball Coaches’ Class 5A All-State team and honorable mention selection on the LSWA team, is the state’s No. 6 prospect according to Prep Baseball Louisiana.
He plans to sign with the Rebels during the NCAA’s early signing period, Nov. 12-19.
“Lucas was such a big part of that puzzle,” Catholic baseball coach Brad Bass said. “From last year coming in with not a whole lot of experience and becoming our No. 1 by the end, it was truly a blessing for us with the offense we had. He also ended up hitting (.393, 1 HR, 14 RBIs) for us. He’s a guy with self-confidence. I always have a saying when your best players are your hardest workers and your best teammates, you’ve got something real special. He’s all of them. I’m so happy for him to achieve his goal.”
Lawrence’s quantum leap from a pitcher that was 1-0 with a 1.91 ERA in three appearances in ’24 to a top-of-the-rotation guy gave Catholic another sterling pitching staff under pitching coach Tyler Naquin. The combination of Lawrence and fellow Mills Richardson provided a solid foundation around senior Bennett Smith, juniors Hayes Segar and Jake Tompkins.
Lawrence led the Bears (37-5) with a 9-2 record and 1.20 ERA – tops among the team’s starters – to go along with 53 strikeouts and 22 walks in 64.1 innings of work. His 13 appearances tied with Richardson and Segar for the team’s best in that category.
“It was really fun to watch those guys pitch, and obviously they dominated high school baseball and led us to our first national championship,” Lawrence said of Schmidt and Loup. “I was ready to follow in the role of Schmidt. I’d been waiting since my eighth-grade year to be the No. 1 guy on the varsity.”
Schmidt’s dominant season, coupled with the school’s first national title in ’24, made for quite an act for Lawrence and the Bears to follow.
“I was excited to go out there and pitch,” he said. “I felt like I was able to pitch free, but there was some obvious, sort of pressure, trying to back up the year Schmitty had and that team had. I was prepared for it. Coach Bass gives us some manhood talks that help you. He says baseball’s 90% mental and 10% physical. Getting your mental craft down really helps you in your game, and that’s why I was able to pitch freely last year.”
The summer leading into his junior season was pivotal for Lawrence, who gave up playing on the basketball team to focus his efforts on baseball. He said his fastball jumped six miles an hour, and he developed physically in the weight room, and college scouts began to take notice.
“That’s when I started talking to USM,” Lawrence said. “I was able to repeat my delivery very well by putting in all of the hard work, getting in the weight room, and not playing basketball.”
The East Coast Pro event in August in Hoover, Alabama, showcased the best of Lawrence, whose fastball topped out at 91 with a curveball at 79-82. His slider was comparable at 77-82 with an above-average change-up of 78-79.
“On scouting reports, hitters think one pitch is coming,” Lawrence said. “I’ve got four other pitches I can throw, and once I show one, and a new one, it’s in the back of their mind and they really don’t know what’s coming. When they start guessing, that’s when I can really start carving them up.
“I’ve always had a good curve as my main off-speed,” Lawrence said. “I’ve worked on a change-up, throwing with dad, and he felt it was a Major League-level change-up. It’s very unique. I added the slider in the summer, going to junior year. It just came naturally.”
Bass is a big proponent of his pitcher’s deep repertoire.
“The more tools you have, the easier the job gets,” he said. “For him to have that pitch selection and be able to throw them all for strikes and be confident in all of them makes the job a lot easier to be done. He did a tremendous job. It’s a credit to him for continuing to develop and never being satisfied. Sometimes you get a guy that has one or two pitches that he can lean on. Leaders are learners, and he’s still learning. He’s still growing, and the best years of Lucas Lawrence are out in front of him.”
Lawrence was at his best with his team on the cusp of repeating as state champions.
The Bears navigated their way back to a best-of-three state title series with a semifinal sweep over St. Thomas More.
Catholic, which swept John Curtis in a quarterfinal series, opened with a 16-6 win over STM, a game in which Bass had to relieve Lawrence in the fourth inning. He allowed six hits and six runs (5 earned), and Smith entered in relief to gain the win.
The Bears closed out the series the following day 9-3 and that meant one fewer day of rest for Lawrence in the championship series because rain had pushed back the start of the semifinal series by a day.
“Obviously, it was not the best outing, but it was in the past,” Lawrence said. “It’s not about me; it’s about the team. If I’m down, then other teammates are going to be down. I decided to flush it and move on to the state championship. I’m not going to win the state championship alone. It’s the team. If we’re not all on the same page, then you’re not going to get much accomplished.”
With Smith pitching a four-hit masterpiece in a 2-0 victory in Game 1 of the championship series against Brother Martin, the Bears would pursue a second straight state title with Lawrence on the mound.
He was more than up for the task in the biggest game of his career.
Catholic snapped a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth and extended its lead to 6-1 in the fifth.
That was more than enough for Lawrence to work with, finishing with a complete-game, six-hit effort. He struck out six and walked two.
“I was just so excited because I was ready to close it out,” Lawrence said. “I knew we were going to win Game 1 because of our team and our offense. In Game 2, I knew what I needed to do, and that would be enough to help my team win. I wasn’t going to try to do too much. Just stay the course, and I went the whole game and helped get us another state championship.”
The resilience of Lawrence in the final didn’t surprise his coach.
“That’s who he is and makes him so special,” Bass said. “He’s a young man who has a lot of self-belief and self-confidence. That’s who he is. He’s a winner. He believes in himself. He’s a great teammate, and I can’t say enough about him, the quality of a human being he is. It’s way more than he is as a great player.”
Catholic followed up its national championship of ’24 with another Top 10 finish, receiving a No. 6 final ranking by MaxPreps, setting the table for this year’s team to follow the example set by the school’s two previous teams.
“We’ve had discussions about the three-peat,” Lawrence said. “Obviously, the goal at the end of the season is to win the state championship. I feel like we’re the heavy favorites to get it again because of some of the players we’re returning. I think we have one of the best pitching staffs in the country and return some pretty good hitters. We’ll need some young guys to step up, but I believe they can do that.”