For three Catholic High seniors, Thursday’s Division III semifinal game against Notre Dame in the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Baseball State Tournament is something they’ve been looking forward to for a long time.

Infielder/outfielder Kyle Evans, catcher/first baseman Spencer Broussard and pitcher/second baseman Andrew Thompson have been a big part of CHS baseball for the past three seasons and get to close out their careers with a chance to compete for a state title, if they can get past the Pios in the semis.

“Not many people get the opportunity to go to the state tournament,” Evans said. “Teams work hard all year for this chance.

“We worked hard, played hard, trusted each other and trusted in God. That’s how we got to this point.”

Catholic High hasn’t been to this point since the 2014 season when the Panthers beat Opelousas Catholic 11-8 in the Class 2A semifinals before falling to Kinder 2-1 in eight innings in the championship game the next day.

“I really don’t remember much about that,” said Broussard, who along with the other seniors, was in eighth grade at the time. “I didn’t even go to the games. I think I was playing travel ball or focusing on spring football at the time.”

What all three seniors do know is that this CHS team is a special team that came together last year as juniors when they were beaten by Riverside Academy in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve been talking about going to the state tournament since we were in fifth grade,” Evans said. “We’ve been playing together for that long. Now it’s coming to reality and we have to seize the moment and enjoy it.

“We thought that we had a chance to go to the state tournament last year but we knew this year that if we played right, had good coaching and played with heart, that we’d get here.”

While making the state tournament is special and only the second time that CHS has made the state tournament in its current format, it won’t feel special unless the team comes back home with gold.

“It’s special to be going there but it really doesn’t mean anything if we don’t come back with a title next to our name when it’s all said an done,” Broussard said. “We won the state title in football and it really doesn’t hit you until you’re in the final game with all the emotions and everything associated with it.

“To come out on top is something that you really can’t replace at this point in your life.”

One thing the players have to deal with is that they are in the state tournament for the first time in their CHS careers.

“It doesn’t seem real,” Thompson said. “For the past couple of days I’ve just let it sink in. For the past two days we’ve been preparing for it and I think that we are ready.”

Playing nemesis Notre Dame, which for the most part, with the major exception of the Division III State championship football game back in December, has gotten the best of Catholic High in recent years, makes it that much sweeter.

“They have a lot of blood with us because we beat them in football and I knew they are going to want to beat us in baseball,” said Thompson. “But we’re not going to let that happen.

“All we can do is go out and give it our all and we don’t want to leave with a loss. We’re going to go out and play like it’s our last game. We prepared the whole season for this point. There is no way that we’re not going to bring the state title home.”

Regardless of what happens, one thing for sure is that this group of seniors want to write their story about the season and the result in the CHS sports annals.

“We can’t change the past,” Broussard said. “All we can do is worry about the now and the present and write our own story as the ones who came before us did.

“It’s our turn to write our own story now.”