A focused Lucas Lawrence broke down his long-awaited senior debut Thursday as his Catholic-Baton Rouge teammates piled 11 hats atop his head.
Nearly one for each run of support the their bats provided the Ole Miss signee in his late-season return from an ACL injury as the Bears (27-4, 6-1) exploded past rival Zachary, 12-1, and into the driver’s seat with one game remaining in the District 4-5A race.
“That’s everything in this game is that you just keep trying to climb that ladder and climb that mountain, and then when you get in striking distance you hope you’re playing your best baseball,” coach Brad Bass said. “The pitching staff has been a strength of our program all year, and it just got better getting Lucas Lawrence back. But (pitching coach) Jake Clouatre has done an incredible job with these guys. They’re tough dudes. They believe. They fill up the strike zone. And then they trust our offense.”
Lawrence threw four hitless innings in the team’s five-inning, run-rule victory at home against a top opponent in the Broncos (24-7, 5-2).
The 6-foot-5, 195-pound left worked through a pair of early walks that led to an unearned run in the top of the first, then a walk and a hit batter in the second.
His first of two strikeouts on the evening ended that latter threat with runners stranded at the corners, and he faced the minimum in the third and fourth before handing off to sophomore righty Reis Wascom to close things out.
“It felt awesome,” Lawrence said. “It took me a second to get back in the rhythm of things, but after that, it felt amazing… I started to get my confidence back throughout the whole game, and that’s what led me to go compete.”
Junior center fielder Kameron Bailey and senior third baseman Collin Walls drew the first-inning walks on a pair of patient at-bats, with the former advancing to third and then coming home on a double steal on which the ball got away from a Catholic infielders’ glove on the exchange.
But the Bears answered right back and just kept mounting.
Hard-hit singles by senior left fielder Jude Schneider and senior right fielder Harrison Kidder, a Louisiana (Lafayette) signee, put the first two batters on base, and another by junior center fielder Dekohta Jones, a South Alabama commit, drove in both on the first pitch he saw.
“This game, everybody got the hit when they needed to, everybody got the job done and everybody had fun,” Jones said. “That’s the thing with this team. We just need to have fun and play mind-free, and that’s what we did today and the results showed.”
Senior first baseman Hayes Segar and senior third baseman Kooper Childs drew walks to begin the bottom of the second and, following a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice, Schneider and and Kidder each drove home a run to extend the lead to 4-1.
The Bears’ lead-off man reached safely in all four innings at the plate, and their first two batters in each of the first three innings reached.
“I think we just had consistent good ABs,” Kidder said. “Pitch-to-pitch, I thought we really worked the count really well, and whenever they gave us good pitches, we were able to hit it and put it in play and hit the ball hard. And we also were able to take advantage of mistakes on the base paths and just be able to create havoc on the base paths.”
Jones and freshman designated hitter Jack Stokes, already emerging as one of the state’s top 2029 football prospects, set the table in the third and scored four pitches later on a Segar hit deep into the outfield.
A Childs single moments later pushed the advantage to 7-1.
And a double play the next at-bat proved only a speed bump as sophomore catcher Myles Auxt, Schneider, Kidder, senior shortstop Mills Richardson (a Southeastern Louisiana signee), Jones and Stokes strung together a series of hits, walks and hard-hit errors to balloon the lead to 11-1.
Segar led off the fourth inning with a single to center, and senior pinch-runner Grant Speer came home two batters later on a single to left by senior second baseman Turner Goldsmith.
“To me, the biggest testament to our team in this game was hitting into a double play and seeming like the momentum was gonna stop, and then the guys being able to strike after that,” Bass said. “So, I think competition reveals character, and today we got to see a little bit of championship character on display.”
Senior shortstop Cullen Howard, senior pitcher Noah Sullivan (a Louisiana Tech commit) and sophomore catcher Cole Andrews joined Bailey and Walls in reaching base for Zachary with a walk each and a hit-by-pitch by Andrews.
But the Lawrence and Wascom managed to keep the drama to a minimum the bulk of the contest with a few defensive highlights assisting along the way.
Richardson, Goldsmith and Segar turned an inning-ending double play in the third, Kidder chased down a looping fly down the right-field line and then gunned down a runner at third to end the fourth and then Jones quickly burst and scooped a low line drive to center to open the fifth.
Lawrence said he knew his teammates would be there for him in his return.
And the Bears’ excitement was palpable all the way through their hat-stacking postgame celebration and Bass reflecting on the moment for his senior ace to work his way back to Thursday’s opportunity.
“I see a kid enjoying the fruits of his labor,” the coach said. “I call him a kid — he’s a young man. But to go through what he we went through emotionally early and then just immediately get nose to the grindstone and go to work and get himself healthy and get back to this point, it’s truly special.
“We were talking before the last inning he goes out there, I said, ‘This is the moment you earned. Go enjoy your moment. This is what you worked so hard for.’ And it’s so cool to watch him do that. But it’s a testament to him and his family and just the tough, tough dude that he is.”