Cards focused during summer season

The baseball program at E.D. White Catholic has a saying they pride themselves on.

The Cardinals, the saying goes, don’t rebuild; they reload.

After replacing eight seniors and 14 players total from the school’s 2013 squad, which came within one game of taking home the Class 3A State Championship, E.D. White Catholic responded with a 25-win season and another outright District 9-3A title in 2014. By most measures, that is considered a successful season – yet the Cardinals expect more from themselves.

They lost in the regional round of the playoffs this past season, falling in a bizarre 15-14 shootout at West Feliciana. It marked the first time since coach Shane Trosclair has been at the school that the Cardinals did not advance past the second round of the post-season.

Such a heartbreaking loss might crush other programs – even some fellow private schools’ teams – but don’t expect it to ultimately slow down E.D. White. Each year, senior classes come and go, but the Cardinals keep posting winning seasons and stringing together post-season runs – so much so that until this past season, the school had made the 3A semifinals in three of the past four years.

Trosclair, who has been head coach at the school since 2009, said a lot of the Cardinals’ success has to do with their mindsets. Making postseason runs is simply in the school’s DNA.

“We prepare our 8th and 9th-graders like they’re practicing to play a Varsity game,” said Trosclair. “Those guys’ mindsets and my assistant coaches’ mindsets is we have to prepare our kids to be ready to play tomorrow, not next year. Our 8th-graders prepare like our juniors and seniors prepare.

“We build that mindset and confidence level, and they can go play with anyone at any time. We’re lucky and blessed that people want to play baseball at E.D. White. We have a reputation and I have probably the best assistant coaches in the state of Louisiana to help out. We’ve got a good little thing going.”

It’s hard to argue with the Cardinals’ success, and in addition to being an annual competitor in the Class 3A playoffs, the school has sent 11 players from their program to the college or junior college ranks since 2009.

Meanwhile, last season’s playoff loss has only served as motivation for E.D. White’s returning players, who entered the week with an 8-3 overall record in their Swampland League summer baseball season.

“We just want to get back there (to the playoffs) really bad,” said Frank Robichaux, a first baseman and outfielder for the team. “We’ve got a lot of hunger and we’re ready to play. Losing in the second round was very humbling. We knew we could have played better and faced a great opponent in West Feliciana. They played us really good and really tough.”

Moving forward from that loss, the Cardinals’ hot start to Swampland play is perhaps even more impressive given that many of E.D. White’s players are also busy with various travel-ball teams this time of year and have been on the road many weekends this summer. Add to that weekly rainouts, and it’s not uncommon for the team to play only one game a week with their roster intact.

“A lot of our losses aren’t with our full team,” said Robichaux, who will be going into his senior season this fall. “We’re just trying to get better this summer and get ready for next season. We have a lot of younger guys and we’re starting to come together and play more as a team.”

Robichaux and other senior players will be counted on to step up going forward next season. To that end, Thomas Legendre is an athletic outfielder/pitcher who is going to be one of the Cardinals’ returning pitchers, along with shortstop Cameron Sanders, the younger brother of Scottie Sanders, the team’s All-District infielder who recently committed to play college ball at Southeastern.

Trey St. Pierre will be a senior at catcher – a position the Cardinals will have some depth at with sophomore Connor Plaisance also in the role – and pitcher Rafe Blades has a promising young arm as a sophomore pitcher.

In the outfield, Michael Hawkins is putting together a quality summer and developing as a hitter, and his twin brother, Alex, was a starter for the team all of last season. Both will be juniors next season.

Those players will have to replace Scottie Sanders, pitchers Justin Theriot and Brennan Legendre, All-District catcher Spencer Folse and designated hitter Jordan Gaubert among others next season.

Trosclair said he likes the young nucleus the Cardinals again have in place and hopes this particular reloading process is one that will ultimately put the school back in contention for a state title.

The Cardinals haven’t won the State Championship since 2001.

“They’ve shown improvement every time we’ve gone out there,” Trosclair said of his team. “I just want to see them steadily grow up and learn the game. There will be a lot of mistakes this summer. We have five or six seniors in the whole program right now and a lot of guys that are getting some experience. We’ve got some injuries, some illnesses and so we’ve got a lot of young kids stepping up. But I think we are where we need to be, and I’m excited about it.”

E.D. White’s Swampland League team was scheduled to continue play this week with games against the Swampland teams of Houma Christian, Assumption and Central Lafourche.