By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
Cooper Scott didn’t get off to the start he was hoping for during the 2024 baseball season – on the mound or at the plate.
Menard’s star senior and LSU-Eunice signee got the ball for the Eagles’ season opener against North DeSoto. Scott gave up just three hits and one unearned run in four innings, but he left with the score tied at 1 and the Eagles lost 2-1.
Scott was back on the mound four days later in Game 2 of a three-game series at St. Louis in Lake Charles. He gave up three hits and a run in the first inning before settling down and leaving with a 4-1 lead after six innings, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, giving up four runs in the seventh in a 5-4 loss.
The Eagles were 0-2 in his first two starts as they began the season 0-5, but that was their last loss when Scott took the hill. He made eight more starts, winning all eight of them, and picked up another victory and a save in two relief appearances.
Scott finished the year with a 9-0 record with one save and a 1.02 ERA. He gave up just 13 runs, including only nine earned, and struck out 59 batters in 62 innings. He tossed four complete games and two shutouts.
Although he had been a varsity pitcher since his freshman season, Scott entered this year with a greater reputation as a hitter than a pitcher.
“At first, I didn’t expect myself to come in and throw as well as I did this year,” Scott said, adding he was just hoping to pick up some of the slack after the graduation of last year’s All-Parish Most Outstanding Player, Andrew Prejean.
While Scott found his groove early on the mound, it took a bit longer for him to get comfortable at the plate. Coming off a junior season in which he was an all-parish and all-state selection, he had just one multi-hit game and was batting only .209 through the first month of the season.
“He was trying to do too much early,” Menard coach Jordan Marks said.
“Baseball is such a mind game that it definitely made me doubt,” Scott admitted.
Starting March 19, Scott began a 12-game hitting streak and batted .367 the rest of the season, including .400 from April until the end of the year, getting a hit in 13 of the team’s final 15 games. Despite his early-season slump, Scott finished with a .292 batting average, eight doubles, five triples, three home runs, 20 RBIs and team-highs of 24 walks, 33 runs and 23 stolen bases.
Because of his production on the mound and at the plate in helping lead the Eagles to the Division III Select semifinals, Scott has been selected as the Most Outstanding Player on the Rapides Parish Journal’s 2024 All-Parish Baseball Team, adding another individual honor to his Defensive Player of the Year award on the RPJ’s All-Parish Football Team.
In the midst of Scott’s slump, Marks moved him from the 3-hole to the leadoff spot because of Scott’s ability to draw walks and steal bases. Scott said he felt like he could help the team better there.
“Toward the beginning of district, I started feeling a little better,” Scott said. “I started to get into the click of things.”
Marks described Scott as a coach’s dream. He took care of his grades in the classroom, nearly being named valedictorian of Menard’s senior class. He was the leader of the Eagles’ football and baseball programs, and he never shied away from the pressure or responsibility that title brought.
“He’s our guy,” Marks said. “He’s a once in a 10-year player to coach – his ability on the field and his attributes off the field. I knew everything was gonna line up. I had a feeling it would. I hoped it would come to fruition and eventually it did. We all believed in him, and I think that’s what helped him get through it.”
Joining Scott in earning one of the top individual honors is Marks, who earns the Journal’s Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Eagles back to Sulphur for the second consecutive season after they had not advanced that far in the playoffs since 2007.
Marks took a squad that returned 14 seniors off last year’s state runner-up finish and was laden with heavy expectations, shook off an 0-5 start and seven losses in its first 10 games, and ripped off 16 victories in its final 17 regular-season games to earn the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.
Marks told his team before the season began that they realistically could start 0-8, but he set the schedule up to see quality pitching early because he knew it would benefit the Eagles in the long run.
“They believed and trusted in what me and (assistant coach) Brad Turney preached,” Marks said. “It got a little squirrely there at 0-5, but it didn’t show on the outside. It all came together for us.”
The Eagles swept Fisher and Dunham in the playoffs, giving up just two runs over the four games, to earn a trip back to Sulphur and a rematch with St. Charles Catholic, which defeated the Eagles in last year’s state title game.
Despite giving up just two hits, the Eagles lost 1-0 as they left runners stranded at second and third in the seventh inning, closing the greatest two-year run since the Eagles made the semifinals in 2006 and won the title in 2007.
Coming tomorrow, the full RPJ 2024 All-Parish Baseball Team.