Ardoin adds to Lake Area’s College World Series legacy
Rodrick Anderson
Former Sam Houston High School standout Silas Ardoin will get to live out a dream that many baseball players have had since they first picked up a ball but few get to experience.
Ardoin and the No. 2 Texas Longhorns will open the College World Series against Mississippi State at 7 p.m. Sunday at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
Ardoin scored the winning run in the first game of the Longhorns’ super regional sweep of South Florida last week. In bottom of the ninth inning, Ardoin reached base on an error and scored with two outs on a double by Eric Kennedy.
He is hitting .251 with 31 RBIs and 28 runs with 48 starts at catcher.
Ardoin, a redshirt freshman, is the most recent former Southwest Louisiana standout to make it to the CWS, along with Mississippi State freshman Davis Meche, who starred at Barbe. Since 2000, several Southwest Louisiana products have made an impact at the CWS:
Beau Jordan, LSU
High School: Barbe
The last Southwest Louisiana product to get on the field in Omaha was former Barbe slugger Beau Jordan in 2017. The Tigers needed to beat No. 1 Oregon State twice to reach the finals. Jordan’s sacrifice bunt RBI, his second of the CWS, was key in a 3-1 win in Game 1 and he had a double and solo home run in the second game.
The Tigers lost in two games to Florida in the finals, but Jordan had an RBI single in a 4-3 loss in Game 1. Twin Bryce Jordan missed the entire 2017 season after a preseason knee injury.
Nick Bourgeois, Tulane
High School: Barbe
Bourgeois pitched one of the best games of his college career in 2001 to send the Green Wave to the CWS for the first time in program history. In the deciding Game 3 in the super regional round against LSU, Bourgeois struck out nine batters in 6 2/3 innings and the Green Wave won 9-4.
He got the start in Tulane’s opener at the CWS, going 4 2/3 innings and leaving the mound with the lead, but Stanford scored five runs in the seventh inning to win 13-11.
Jared Foster, LSU
High School: Barbe
Foster helped LSU reach the CWS in 2015. The Tigers went 1-2, but Foster had a big game against Texas Christian in the opener, going 2-for-3 with a solo home run.
Foster hit .278 with 10 home runs and 35 RBIs in 2015 and played for the Tigers 2013 team that made the CWS.
Dooley Prince, Texas
High School: Sulphur
After two seasons at McNeese State, Price transferred to Texas and helped the Longhorns make a run to the CWS in 2004. He batted .560 in the post season with four RBIs in the Longhorn’s CWS opener against Arkansas and four hits in a 9-3 win over Georgia. Texas lost to Cal State Fullerton 6-4, 3-2 in the finals.
Texas won the CWS in 2005, but Prince suffered a knee injury early in the season that resulted in a surgery that kept him out the rest of the season.
Neil Simoneaux, UL-Lafayette
High School: Barbe
ULL made its first appearance at the CWS, losing its opening game to Stanford 6-4 but went on to win the next two, including a 5-4 win over Clemson. In that game, Simoneaux, a sophomore, went in as a pinch hitter, and in traditional Barbe fashion, laid down a sac bunt that moved Jarvis Landry into scoring position. Landry eventually scored to tie the game at 4-4.
Johnny Thibodeaux, LSU
High School: Barbe
Thibodeaux batted .313 with 10 doubles and 14 RBIs for national champion LSU in 2000. In the postseason, Thibodeaux batted .500 with three doubles, seven RBIs and three runs.
At the CWS, he had a sac bunt that moved two runners into scoring position who eventually scored in a 10-4 win over Southern California.
Former Sam Houston High School standout Silas Ardoin’s two-run single in the 4th inning scored the go-ahead runs in Texas’ 8-4 win over Tennessee in an elimination game Tuesday at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.