Sulphur Baseball Semi-Final Preview

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - The Sulphur Golden Tors are back on their home turf for the LHSAA State Semi-Finals, and when they take the field at McMurry Park on Thursday night, they’ll do so against their rivals from across town, the Barbe Buccaneers, with a spot in the Non-Select Division I State Championship game on the line.

Obviously a big game right? That’s not how Tors head coach Sam Moore sees it, he views Thursday night’s rivalry showdown as just another game.

“Oh, we play Barbe? I really wasn’t sure who we played, but we knew somebody was going to be playing here,” said Moore jokingly. “We’re excited to be playing in the Semi-Final game. Yeah we are playing Barbe, but we’re looking at Barbe as another opponent, we have to play our opponent, we have to play our game, we don’t get caught up in the Barbe vs. Sulphur stuff like the community does, we leave that to those guys and let them do that, but we’re playing our brand of baseball, we know we need to play mistake-free, just continue to do the things that made us win 34 games.”

Like coach Moore said there, Sulphur’s brand of baseball brought them quite a bit of success in 2023 as they won 34 games, and received the three seed in the Non-Select Division I bracket because of it. However, despite winning 34 games in 2023, the Tors failed to beat the Buccaneers, but now they have the opportunity to do just that with a spot in the title game on the line.

For coach Moore, who is retiring at season’s end which will either come on Thursday night, or Saturday night, being able to bring a State Championship back to Sulphur, which would be the first in Sulphur baseball history, would be special, but not for him, for his 15 seniors.

“Anytime you have 15 seniors in your program, that’s huge, it would mean the world to me to go out with a bang with those guys because they have been here, and most of them have been playing for four years, and that’s probably why we are where we are because they have the experience. To be where they are, so very excited for those guys, it would mean a whole lot to be able to bring home and hoist that trophy for those guys.”

The highly-anticipated matchup is set for Thursday at 5:00 on McMurry Park’s Field 41.

For the full interview with Sulphur head coach Sam Moore, click here.

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