St. Mary Parish rivalry moves to state: Central Catholic, Hanson clash in semifinals

For a few hours Friday, Class 1A baseball fans in St. Mary Parish will be divided as Central Catholic and Hanson Memorial will square off in one Class 1A semifinal contest at McMurry Park in Sulphur.
Hanson baseball coach Ryan Stoute said he thinks Friday’s game will be one to keep an eye on this weekend.
“It’s going to have, I guess, a championship-type atmosphere, because you’re going to have everybody from both communities there,” he said. “They’re not waiting till Saturday. They’re going to both be out on the Friday.”
Central Catholic coach Tyler Jensen said the game is good for the parish and for the rivalry between the two schools.
“Anytime anyone around here has success, we’re always happy for them,” Jensen said. “We pull for all the area schools to do well. Unfortunately, one of us two, our season has to end because of this game, but it’s always good when teams in this parish, in this area, can do well.”
While Hanson will be making its first trip to the Class 1A semifinals since 2009, Central Catholic is in its fifth straight semifinals, including its second-straight contest in Sulphur.
Additionally, this year’s Central Catholic senior class recorded its 100th victory with last week’s 8-4 quarterfinal win against Cedar Creek. The seniors, Samuel Guarisco, Stefano Guarisco, Patrick Barron and Charlie Solar, have combined for a 100-22 mark in their high school careers with one state final appearance and four consecutive semifinal appearances.
“It’s a big milestone, but it really doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win these last two games,” Solar said, referencing the semifinals and finals. “That’s what we’re really looking for.”
Jensen agreed that achieving what the senior class has done and what the program has done the past five years isn’t easy.
“We talk about it all the time, just how blessed we are and how fortunate we’ve been,” Jensen said. “I tell the guys every time this happens ‘make sure you enjoy it because you’ll never know if you’ll make it back again.’ We’ve just happened to have had five in a row, and that’s a great accomplishment, but I think it speaks volumes about our kids, about our assistant coaches, just about our school in general and all the support we’ve had from our fans and the administration throughout these five years.”