Central Lafourche hungry for a title

For the Central Lafourche baseball team, last year’s Regional playoff loss to Hahnville hurt. The Trojans were three outs away from beating Hahnville and punching a ticket to the State Tournament in Lafayette.

Instead, things fell apart in the seventh inning, and Hahnville punched the Trojans’ ticket back home to Mathews.

And how does that result impact this year’s team?

The Trojans returned 10 players from last year’s team. “All of which were on the varsity team,” said coach Scott Duplantis. “Most of which were starters on a team that … finished second in a good district, and beat Brother Martin in the first round of the playoffs.”

Duplantis said he held a meeting for returning players the day after the loss to Hahnville, asking them “how down” they felt. From there, he encouraged the players to immediately set goals for this season—nearly a year before 2007s opening pitch. “Now that you know the feeling,” said Duplantis. “How close you were; how hungry you were for it; that you wanted it so bad; it was right there and you didn’t get it. Let’s set our goals now.”

Senior Todd Martin said being three outs away from Lafayette, a year ago, keeps this year’s team hungry. “Just knowing how bad it hurt to lose,” said Martin, “and knowing we could go far. We have most of our returners back this year, and we know we could go even farther.”

Duplantis said the team’s immediate response to the meeting was to aim for a district championship and a trip to the State Tournament.

So far, so good.

The Trojans currently sit atop the District 6-5A standings with a 5-1 record (14-10 overall).

While having 10 seniors on the team has played a key role in the start, the most critical aspect is the Trojans’ pitching rotation of Walt Foran, Cully Guidroz and Lucas LeBlanc. “You’ve got three guys like that on the mound, it’s going to be hard to beat,” said Duplantis. “It gives the team confidence that every time you go out on the field, you have a chance to win, no matter who you play.”

Duplantis added that all three players—Foran, Guidroz and LeBlanc—will sign scholarships to play in college.

But now, while in high school, those three players, along with their teammates, are doing what they can do to help the Trojans advance farther than they did last season. And a big part of doing that is Central Lafourche’s pre-district schedule.

While the Trojans went 9-9 in pre-district play, the record does not tell the whole story. Central Lafourche ended last year’s pre-district schedule with a similar record. During that span, the Trojans lost to Brother Martin twice. When the teams met in the playoffs—their third meeting that season—the Trojans won 2-0.

The same thing happened in 2004. After losing to Holy Cross twice in the regular season, Central Lafourche beat the Tigers in the playoffs, 8-3.

Which means a couple of regular season losses to teams like Jesuit and Rummel should not be a cause for alarm. “We use pre-district to build for district,” said Duplantis. “When we play those types of teams early in the year, even though we may lose the game, it’s to point out that we’re the better team. We may not have had our best out there everyday, and we’re just trying things out, but come playoff time, we will be better. It’s getting the guys to believe in that.”

And the players have bought into it. Senior pitcher Cully Guidroz says facing those teams early in the season pays dividends late in the year. “We play against teams that have pitchers that throw in the 80s and 90s (mph),” said Guidroz. “It gets us ready for district and the playoffs.”

Martin agreed. “It helps a lot,” he said. “We play some tough teams and see some of the best pitchers in the state. It sure is good for us, and makes us a better team.”

Facing those types of pitchers has helped the Trojans produce consistently throughout their lineup. Through six games of district play, the Trojans have nine players with four or more RBIs, and eight players with five or more runs scored. “Everybody’s producing,” said Duplantis. “They’re scoring runs, driving guys in. Everybody’s balanced, throughout.”

Still, Martin says there is room for improvement. “We hit the ball well,” he said, “but we’re still not hitting the ball the way we can. Once we come around, we should be hard to beat.”

Even so, the Trojans have outscored their first six district opponents 54-24.

And that is hard for any team to beat.

Central Lafourche hungry for a title