‘Be like Mike’
Choudrant senior Bryce McGuire (2) rips off his helmet in jubilation as he crosses home with the winning run against Hicks in the Division V Nonselect quarterfinals. The Aggies take on Anacoco today at 11 a.m. in the semifinals in Sulphur. Photo by Josh McDaniel
SULPHUR — Choudrant baseball has a high bar to clear, but the Aggies embrace the standard they’ve set for themselves.
Back in the state tournament for the third year in a row, and two wins away from winning three straight state championships, the No. 1 Aggies (28-4) want to put themselves in rare air.
Sixteen teams in state history have gone for a three-peat, and Choudrant has never won three crowns in a row.
Lofty goal? Maybe. But the Aggies want to be like Mike – Michael Jordan, that is – and win three consecutive championships, cementing themselves as a dynasty of Class B baseball.
“Michael Jordan did it. So can we,” Choudrant junior Michael Jones said after the Aggies’ win over Hicks Thursday in the Division V Non-select quarterfinals.
The Aggies will have to first take care of No. 5 Anacoco ( 22- 11) in today’s state semifinal matchup at 11 a.m., a rematch of last season’s Class B state semifinal game when Choudrant won in walk-off fashion 5-4, to move one step closer.
CHS head coach Joel Antley said the standard of championship or bust has become the everyday mission for the Aggies over the last four seasons. And while he says he’ll be proud of his squad either way, Jones and senior catcher Gavin Murphy won’t shy away from the legacy they head to Sulphur trying to make.
It’s about the rings.
“Just gotta go one game at a time and never take a pitch off,” Murphy said. “ We’re getting to the wire here, but we’re ready. I mean, last year we came back and beat Anacoco in the semifinals. We’re never out of the fight.”
Antley, in his first season coaching the Aggies, knows his team has tasted the euphoria of winning it all before, and once you’ve gotten it, you can’t shake it. He knows his veteran squad is not heading to Sulphur this time around for anything less.
“With these guys, we wouldn’t have to set the goal anyway,” Antley said. “That is their goal. Their goal is to go back and put another ring on their fingers.”
It hasn’t been exactly smooth sailing this season. Even though the Aggies are riding a 20-game winning streak, they’ve been pushed to the limit in the postseason.
Through Choudrant’s two playoff wins to march back to Sulphur, it’s taken late-inning heroics to get the job done. Antley said that only comes from a team with big goals and a steady pulse when the lights get brighter.
Whether it’s the Aggies’ 1-0 win over No. 17 Doyline in the regional round or Thursday’s 2-1 walk-off win over No. 8 Hicks, Antley said he never felt like his team was on the verge of elimination – not when championship DNA is in the blood of this program.
“I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no quit in these guys,” Antley said. “ With our guys on the mound, I have complete confidence that very few runs are going to get scored. If we can hit the baseball and score a few runs, I think we’re in good shape.
“There’s going to be nerves no matter what. Those guys have been down there twice and won two. And when you step on that field in the semifinals in Sulphur, there’s going to be nerves. If there’s not, you’re not doing it right.”
The last time these two teams met in last year’s semifinals, Choudrant needed a walk- off single from Bryce McGuire in the eighth inning to come out on top.
Antley expects Anacoco will roll with Reid Rodriguez, the same starting pitcher as last year’s matchup, who went 7 innings, had 3 earned runs, and struck out 5 on 114 pitches against CHS.
Same team or not, Choudrant knows it has to take care of business if it wants to make history like it hopes.
“It is strikingly coincidental that we see them – probably the same pitcher in both,” Antley said. “ Bryce will start for us and the Rodriguez kid for them threw last year, and I’m sure that’s who’ll be on the mound for them this year. Kind of a repeat. I hope the end result is a repeat.”
Choudrant pitched McGuire and Landon Hennen in that game against the Indians, but it was Hennen who started and went 3 innings, giving up 3 runs, while McGuire came out of the bullpen for 5 dominant innings for the win.
Through two playoff games, Antley has gone with McGuire first and then Hennen to clean up.
The other semifinal will be played at the same time today between No. 3 Pitkin and No. 7 Weston. Prior to Choudrant’s back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022, it was Pitkin and head coach J.C. Holt, a former LSU star, who won the last title in what was Class B, in 2019. There was no state tournament in 2020 during the COVID year.
The two semifinal winners will meet Friday at 11 a.m. for the championship.
