Why Catholic baseball believes it's better than its state runner-up team from a year ago

On a June night a year ago, the Fightin' Irish wiped away tears and stood on the US Baseball Park field. After coming up on the wrong end of an 8-4 state championship game, Catholic fell a game short of its ultimate goal.

Head coach Courtney Spitz told his team about the beauties of the game and told his players that they were going through its cruelties. Throughout the months leading to the 2023 season, the Fightin' Irish used those cruelties as motivation.

With a hot start to the year, Catholic looks like the elite team that it was promised to be and one that may have a shot at winning that final game at the end of the season.

"Our kids have the right mindset," Spitz said. "We're trying to preach to get your mind right and rely on your practice routines and your drills and everything will come into place."

After an 8-0 win over Branson on Monday evening, the Fightin' Irish moved to 4-0 and it continues to play one of the most difficult schedules in the Ozarks. Last season, Catholic needed seven games to come away with its fourth win and 11 to come away with its fifth.

A high level of consistency is going to be needed in the later part of the season following the Irish's move to Class 4 when they were Class 3 a year ago. Having to play the most anticipated district in the area, the Irish will need to be playing its best late in the year.

"Southwest Missouri is just loaded and it's never easy," Spitz said. "We gotta do a good job at coming in and putting our best performance on the field each day. It's a hard thing to do but that's our strive."

Catholic still has Ben Smith... and he expects to get drafted

Professional scouts have been flocking to the ballpark and blowing up Spitz's phone whenever senior Mizzou signee Ben Smith makes his way onto the mound. The most dominant arm in the area is still dominating for the Irish and will give the Irish a chance to win every time he throws.

Smith won Catholic its semifinal game last season by striking out 11 of the 17 batters he faced while allowing just two hits in five innings. In the state quarterfinals, Smith threw a no-hitter against Fair Grove.

"He's just dialed in, man," Spitz said. "I think he has an idea of the end goal and what he wants it to be and he's going after it. That's kind of what's been his mentality since he was a sophomore here. He is going to give you everything he's got and he's going to try to one-up it with his next performance."

Smith put in the work during the offseason and had his fastball reach 94 mph with an improving slider. He said it's been in the 91-92 mph range on the mound as he overpowers each opponent he takes on.

"I've really had the mindset that I want to get drafted this year," Smith said. "That field me the entire offseason to work harder."

The lineup should be deeper and it's more experienced

A look down at the Irish starting lineup and it's very similar to the one that finished second in the state a year ago. Six returnees make it up while adding freshman second-baseman Nic Ruter to the mix.

Batting in the two-hole, Smith has proven to be one of the best third-basemen in the state when he's not striking everyone out. Senior Coleman Morrison bats behind him as one of the best arms and infielders in the state as a Jefferson College baseball commit.

The two make for one of the best one-two punches in the state and then Catholic adds the rest of the experience from a lineup that played in a state championship game. The lineup also includes the likes of Jack Schoen, Logan Ripper, Ben Ruter and Hans Kaiser.

"I think that experience from last year really helped," Spitz said. "Getting to the biggest stage and having the pressure on you and kind of feeling it. Now, our guys are just calm, cool and collected in those moments. It's just that mental mindset of never giving in and that we're always in it."

'Ben Smith Jr.' gives the Irish another elite arm

Smith isn't the only future Mizzou pitcher on the roster. He also isn't the only future Mizzou pitcher in his family.

Freshman Jack Smith is Mizzou-bound and has made his impact on the mound for the Fightin' Irish already this season.

Jack Smith was brought in in a tight spot in Catholic's win over a very good Nixa lineup and got the Irish out of it before winning the game in extras. He also came in for two innings of relief of Morrison on Monday and put the game away to beat Branson.

"He's just Ben Smith Jr.," Spitz laughed. "He's just got that different mindset and different mentality and physicality. He just has so much confidence and he's learned from being around older guys and his older brother and just by playing good baseball himself. He's played good baseball without playing at Catholic and he's done a lot of good over the summers."

The new Smith on the bump might be good but his older brother laughed and said that he's not better at him than anything just yet.

"It's awesome," Ben Smith said. "I've never played with my brother before. Just to see him go out there and compete like he does, it's great."

A move to Class 4 puts Catholic in a loaded district

The worst-kept secret in southwest Missouri high school baseball heading into the season was that Catholic would be moved up to Class 4 and it would potentially be in one of the best districts at the level in the state.

It came to be with Catholic grouped up with the likes of Logan-Rogersville and Hollister. Logan-Rogersville finished as the Class 4 runners-up last season and returned its two Missouri State commits and a third elite arm with an all-state pitcher and Missouri State signee moving and playing for the Wildcats.

Catholic knows the path to getting back to the top isn't going to be easy. Catholic and Rogersville will play a regular season game on April 25.

"We knew we were going to be moved up and we knew that the competition was going to be significantly harder," Smith said. "We just had the mindset to prepare for that and I think that's gonna help us."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Catholic High School baseball believes it can win state championship