In the final home start of his career, star ace William Schmidt dealt Catholic High a 5-0 Thursday night win over Jesuit in the Division I select quarterfinals.
Schmidt, an LSU signee and projected first-round MLB draft pick, struck out 12 Jesuit batters in a complete seven-inning outing. Only one Blue Jay recorded a hit. Schmidt retired the rest, forcing them to either knock his high-octane fastballs into easy outs or whiff on his low-hanging breaking balls.
“I’m a fan,” Catholic coach Brad Bass said. “It stinks that that’s the last time you’ll see him pitch here. But I’ll tell you what: If you’re gonna go out, do it like he did against an incredible opponent, so great for him and great for our team.”
At the plate, No. 1 Catholic (35-2) notched four earned runs on eight hits. Trip Dobson and Davis Emonet, the District 4-5A Bears’ fifth and sixth batters, kick-started the Catholic offense by knocking a pair of base hits on consecutive fourth-inning plate appearances. They combined to tally four RBIs.
The No. 9 Blue Jays (22-12) committed three errors and put only one runner on base. Coach Kenny Goodlett said his hitters knew what challenges Schmidt presented and battled into some competitive at-bats against him anyway.
“It’s baseball,” Goodlett said. “Sometimes (the errors) compound, and we know that. That’s not our style of baseball, and that’s not how we usually play. Tonight it happened, and I don’t expect that tomorrow.”
Next, Catholic and Jesuit will meet at 5 p.m. Friday for Game 2. With a win, the Bears would earn a trip to Sulphur for the semifinals of the LHSAA state baseball tournament.
On Thursday, the Catholic offense scored its first four runs of the game in the fourth inning. Dobson drove in the first with a hard-hit grounder to third base, and Emonet sent the next two home by dropping a line drive into left field. The fourth scored on a Jesuit throwing error.
Jesuit didn’t record its first hit until the fifth, when Patrick Berrigan dribbled a grounder down the third-base line. But the 9-5A Blue Jays couldn’t move him into scoring position because Schmidt struck out the next three batters they sent to the plate — for his ninth, 10th and 11th punchouts of the game.
Catholic shortstop Jack Ruckert then smacked a double into left-center field for his 47th hit of the season, a school record. Dobson’s sacrifice fly brought home Ruckert for the Bears’ fifth and final run of the game.
In Jesuit’s last chance to cut into the Catholic lead, Derek DeLatte struck out swinging, Marshal Serio grounded out to second base, and Patrick Berrigan flew out into center field.
Blue Jay starter Maes Martin allowed seven hits and four earned runs across his five innings.