Unwavering Determination: North DeSoto able to send out coach Bo Odom with state title
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
North DeSoto had the perfect response to getting run-ruled for the first time this season.
The Griffins, who had twice fended off elimination in the Division II non-select playoffs, scored first in Saturday’s winner-take-all showdown with top-seeded Brusly when sophomore Miller Warren launched a three-run homer in the first inning.
The second-seeded Griffins found several heroes en route to their 7-4 victory and second state championship in school history. The pitching of starter Bryant Lacour helped maintain the lead that sophomore Preston Eaves cemented by allowing one run over four innings in relief that included getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh.
Junior Trace Ogle contributed two hits, an RBI, and a dazzling play at second with two runners on that saved a couple of runs in the fourth. Senior left fielder Cole Cory also turned in a couple of defensive gems in left field that helped the Griffins (30-14) complete their state championship a day after a 15-0 demolition in three innings.
“We did not play bad in the 15-0 game, they just hit and hit it hard,” said Odom, who announced he stepped down Monday from the school after 19 seasons to accept another position, turning over the program’s reins to assistant Jared Jennings. “It was never our goal to lose in 45 minutes at the state tournament, but I think that was better than losing a one-run game in the bottom of the last inning. If we had made seven or eight errors, and walked nine or 10, and gotten mercy-ruled, that’s a whole different ball game. They just played really well.”
Junior Braden Jones gave North DeSoto a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three state championship series last Thursday. The Griffins ably backed him up – exploding for eight runs in the second inning for an 8-2 victory.
North DeSoto’s lineup, which finished the season with 33 homers, flexed its muscle during that surge with home runs from Lacour with a grand slam along with blasts from senior first baseman Reni Mason and junior Porter Doyal.
Brusly (34-7) evened the series with a similar eruption in Game 2. The Panthers collected 12 of their 13 hits after two were outs, scoring 14 runs in the second inning in a game that was over an inning later.
“These kids have faced some adversity in the playoffs and met it head-on,” Odom said. “The kids never stopped believing and always thought they had a chance on Saturday. We came out, made a few plays and had some big hits and had some special moments. A lot of people did a lot of great things.”
With the LHSAA opting for a best-of-3 format throughout the entire postseason, Odom tried to prepare his team for such a format over the course of the regular season.
“We tried to set the schedule where every weekend was a three-game series,” he said. “Whether it was against the same team or in a tournament setting, just so they would understand. I knew at some point down the road we were going to face that. We had some chances to win all three games in a series, and we didn’t. We may have lost the first one and had to regroup at some point. We told them this would come back to bite us, and they responded every time.”
North DeSoto had the foundation of a team back after advancing to the state quarterfinals the year before where eventual state champion Lutcher swept the Griffins in two games.
This year’s five-member senior class was part of a team that made consecutive trips to the state semifinals, falling to North Vermilion in 2002 and Iowa in ’23. The Griffins lost to the eventual state champion in two of those three trips with losses to Lutcher and Iowa.
“I told them it was their turn now,” Odom said. “I said to go and return the favor. They just picked up each other when things didn’t go right and would move on. We also have a good junior group as well. They’ve all meshed together pretty well.”
North DeSoto was forced to deal with its first bout of adversity in the fourth week of the season when senior catcher Taylor Alexander was hit by a pitch in a tournament against South Beauregard. Alexander needed six screws and a plate in his face with mesh wires connected to his eye socket.
The Griffins went 14-5 over the first month until hitting a difficult stretch in District 1-4A play. They endured a season-high four-game losing streak, falling twice to Loyola Prep (eventual No. 3 seed in Division II select), once to District 1-5A member Parkway, and another district setback to Northwood (eventual No. 3 seed in Division I non-select).
“It had been a long time since we lost four games in a row,” Odom said. “Those were four quality teams. We felt we should have won three of the four games, but we didn’t get that hit with two outs and they did. That was the difference. That was a tough stretch for us. We had to keep them together. They never lost hope.”
The Griffins were able to halt that streak with a 3-2 win over Northwood and won seven of their last nine games in the regular season.
Jones emerged during that juncture and took over the team’s No. 1 role in the pitching rotation with a complete-game win over Northwood that featured 14 strikeouts.
“That’s when it started clicking there,” Odom said. “Northwood was a solid team and a big win. That was Braden’s coming-out party. That’s when we put him as our No. 1 guy.”
Odom, who began his coaching career 28 years ago at his alma mater Mansfield where he spent his first nine years, reached a milestone during the regular season with his 500th career win against Minden.
“I told them going into the playoffs that this was probably the toughest schedule on paper that we had played in a long time,” said Odom, the LSWA’s Class 4A Coach of the Year in 2013 and ’19.
North DeSoto, which received a first-round bye, rolled past No. 15 Breaux Bridge in a pair of run-rule victories to sweep its regional series.
Inclement weather and a determined effort by the West Feliciana team, the No. 7 seed, provided North DeSoto with a precursor to its state championship run.
The first game of the quarterfinal series began at North DeSoto, where the Griffins trailed 2-0 with Jones on the mound, when lightning struck followed by hail and rain, pushing the game to Logansport’s all-turf field.
Following a two-hour delay, the teams completed the game where Warren had a tying two-run homer in the sixth and the Griffins won the game in the seventh, 6-5.
Rain continued to pelt the Stonewall area, dropping several inches of rain on North DeSoto’s field, but officials helped to remove all the water, and the visiting Saints evened the series with a 5-4 victory, setting the stage for a deciding Game 3 less than an hour later.
The two teams battled to a 7-7 tie through seven innings when Jones, in a pinch-hit role, sent his team to the semifinals with an RBI hit in the eighth.
North DeSoto got the opportunity to avenge its quarterfinal loss to Lutcher with the teams splitting the first two games to create a dramatic third encounter where the Griffins outlasted the Bulldogs, 3-2.
“It’s a pretty good rivalry getting to the playoffs,” Odom said of North DeSoto-Lutcher, which have also met in football, soccer, and softball over the past four years. “It was a fun series.”
North DeSoto had a sense of familiarity with its third trip to the state tournament in four years, taking its first step toward its state title in 2012 with a Game 1 victory.
They had to wait though, allowing a season-high 15 runs and incurring its first mercy-rule defeat of the season, before persevering in the first best-of-three state championship series for the Division II non-select title.
“We had some injuries during the middle of the season,” Odom said. “The good Lord kind of blessed us. We had to play with some guys that got some very valuable reps that probably wouldn’t have gotten those reps if guys wouldn’t have gotten injured or nicked up. We got healthy at the right time and started playing pretty good baseball.”
North DeSoto was built for success with a dependable lineup that hit .323 with 33 homers and averaged 7.0 runs a game. They also had a deep pitching staff that produced a 2.49 ERA and a defense that fielded at a .929 clip.
They had all of the pieces that resulted in a state championship season.
Mason, a Coastal Alabama signee and Class 4A All-State honorable mention selection in ’24, led the team in four offensive categories with a .465 batting average, 14 homers, 51 RBIs, and 43 runs scored.
“He hurt his hamstring against Minden and didn’t play for the last two weeks of the season,” Odom said. “For the playoffs, we had to tape him from his hip to the bottom of his ankle. Luckily, we had a bye and were able to get him back and that helped.”
The Griffins lineup, which also had six players bat over .300, also relied on Cory, who made his own recovery from a Week 2 injury in football that not only threatened the rest of his football season but baseball campaign as well. Cory batted .383 with 6 doubles, 22 RBIs, and 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts, and didn’t commit an error in 51 total chances.
“We weren’t sure if he would play another game in football or an inning in baseball for us,” Odom said. “He rehabbed and God blessed him to come back in the playoffs in football and had an incredible high school baseball season.”
Doyal and Warren, a sophomore, were two more key power sources for the team with six home runs apiece. Doyal hit .370 – compiling a team-high .675 slugging percentage – to go with a best of 13 doubles and was second in RBIs with 33. Warren batted .331 with five doubles, 18 RBIs, and a .558 slugging percentage.
The Griffins also had key contributors in the lineup from Jones (.346, 5 2Bs, 12 RBIs), senior Brayden Toothman (.331, 6 2Bs, 2 homers, 24 RBIs, 40 runs, 12 stolen bases) and sophomore Colton LaCour (.316, 9 RBIs, 25 runs).
North DeSoto had five pitchers log more than 30 innings with Delafield, a Class 4A All-State outfielder a year ago, compiling a 9-4 record with three saves. He had nine complete games in 16 appearances with a 2.04 ERA and a team-best 69 strikeouts and 21 walks in 61.2 innings and led the staff along with Jones (3-4, 2.83 ERA, 66 Ks, 42 walks, 47 innings).
Senior Mason Byford was 5-4 with a 2.68 ERA, 32 strikeouts, and 24 walks in 41.2 innings followed by Lacour, a Coastal Alabama signee, with a 3-1 record and one save. He struck out 30 in 32.2 innings with Eaves (2-0, 3 saves, 2.28 ERA, 28 Ks, 8 walks in 30.2 innings and Ogle (4-0, 0.68 ERA, 21 Ks, 9 walks, 20.1 innings.
“I thought we had enough talent to win,” Odom said. “Would we get the right breaks? Get the hit when we needed? That’s out of our control. I wanted to put a schedule together so that when we got to the playoffs, they’re not going to see anything that they hadn’t seen before. That kind of helped their mindset to know that we had seen at least this good or better.”
In what turned out to be Odom’s final game, he resigned Monday to become Supervisor of Maintenance for DeSoto Parish schools, North DeSoto was treated to a hero’s welcome afterward. Following a team meal, they were escorted back to Stonewall by four police units, with their merry parents and fans in tow, and returned to a soggy campus where rain had fallen.
The inclement weather did little to dampen the spirits of a team that reached the top of the mountain for the second time in school history, cheered on by its adoring fans that had galvanized during their state championship run.
“It was almost like a movie, it was kind of surreal,” Odom said. “When we got back to school there were 150 to 200 people waiting on us to celebrate. This is a neat community. They support us. We have a gas station, red lights … it’s a rural town. The community comes together and supports you and they still came out in the rain. It was pretty neat.”