Teurlings Catholic is one step away from the chance to compete for a third straight baseball state title.
The No. 3-seeded Rebels completed a sweep of No. 6 Loranger in the Division II select quarterfinals on Saturday at home, breezing past the Wolves and Texas signee Hayes Holton 6-1.
"We came out and answered the bell," Rebels coach Brooks Badeaux said. "We put pressure on them every inning. That team (Loranger) has a bunch of great competitors, but they ran into 29 great competitors, too."
The Rebels (25-12-1), who will face the No. 2 St. Charles/No. 7 E.D. White winner, took a 2-0 lead in the second inning without a hit.
Brennan Storms and Evan Vincent reached base on errors, with Storms scoring on a Mason Gonzales sacrifice fly and Vincent crossing the plate after Holton threw the ball into the outfield on a pickoff play and it rolled under the center fielder's glove.
"(Holton) had his strikeouts, but I knew if we threw strikes — we've been playing good defense all year — if we could get two runs, I liked our chances," Badeaux said.
Rebels starter Kade Schambough threw a lot of strikes, pitching six innings and allowing four hits with three walks and striking out five. Meanwhile, Holton walked only two but hit three batters and uncorked three wild pitches over five innings.
"It's come to what we expect," Badeaux said of Schambough. "He's kinda spoiled us. He's efficient, pounds the zone, gets ground balls and lets the defense play behind him."
Shortstop William Power, a UNO signee, smashed a solo home run in the fifth inning off Holton to push the lead to 3-0. Power and cleanup hitting third baseman Brennan Storms each scored twice, while Gonzales drove in two runs and Jackson Breaux chipped in two hits.
"It was a (future) Division I college player vs. a Division I college player," Badeaux said of the Holton vs. Power matchup. "Will won that time. (Holton) left a pitch up. It's what we kinda knew. He kept bouncing his breaking ball, left a fastball up, and Will got it. Will's a great player."
Karter Deculus and Vincent, who pitched six innings to get the win in Game 1, each had a hit and scored a run in Game 2. Lincoln Guillory pitched the final inning of Game 1 (3-2 win) to collect a save. Dylan Helms finished Game 2 on the mound.
"The kids played great," Badeaux said. "They got out here early - it rained all night - and busted their tails to get the field ready. That's the nature of this program: the harder you work for something, the harder it is to surrender."
In the second inning, Gonzales wasn't able to get a bunt down but hung tough against Holton, who throws a 97-mph fastball, and lofted a sacrifice fly to score the first run.
"That shows you the kind of winner he is," Badeaux said of Gonzales, "when he can flush it (not executing the bunt) and move onto the next pitch. That's what we preach, and the guys have done it pretty much the whole year."
The Rebels are attempting to send Badeaux out with another championship after news surfaced that he and the school would be parting ways after the season.
"It's a tribute to their character," he said of the team's resolve. "It's going to be my last season. They made that pretty clear. It's no surprise what happened about three weeks ago.
"You think that's a good time to do that to a team? No, that's not a good time...it's horrible. But this is about them, and what they do is lock in every day. They're competitors whose focus is tunneled in."
Loranger (20-10), located in rural Tangipahoa Parish northeast of Hammond, was making its first quarterfinal appearance in nearly 15 years. The Wolves committed six errors in Game 2.