All-Decade Baseball Big Schools teamLeading the All-Decade Baseball Big Schools team, from left to right, is Pitcher of the Decade Kale Breaux of Sulphur, and Barbe’s Glenn and Gavin Cecchini, Coach and HItter of the Decade respectively.

American Press

Editor’s Note: Sixth in a series of high school all-decade teams. The team was picked by the American Press sports staff and covers the seasons from 2011 to 2020.

Baseball was the best sport for Southwest Louisiana large schools over the last decade, with at least one team from Classes 5A-3A competing in a state championship game in each year, except 2013.

Barbe led the trophy hall with five Class 5A titles and national championship honors from MaxPreps and Baseball America in 2014, when the Bucs went 39-2 with arguably the best team the area has seen. That was the first of three consecutive titles for the Bucs, who closed the decade in style with a championship game win over Sam Houston for the 2019 title.

St. Louis (4A, 2011) and South Beauregard (3A, 2017) also won titles, while DeRidder, Iota, Sam Houston, Sulphur and Iowa all earned at least one runner-up finish.

Individuals starred as well, with a trio of standouts winning the Mr. Baseball award as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s most outstanding player—Barbe’s Gavin Cecchini (2012), Sulphur’s Kale Breaux (2015) and Sam Houston’s Cameron Meeks (2019).barbe-baseball-photo3(Photo on file: Barbe’s Gavin Cecchini hits a lead-off home run Thursday against Dutchtown.) (BRAD PUCKETT / AMERICAN PRESS)

Brad Puckett

Gavin Cecchini is the winner of the Hitter of the Decade award after leading the Bucs to the 2012 state title by hitting .413 with 7 home runs, 32 RBI and 31 stolen bases. Cecchini was the 12th overall pick in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the New York Mets and is currently in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. He played 89 games with the Mets, highlighted by a home run in Dodger Stadium off Clayton Kershaw.

Pitcher of the Decade is Sulphur’s Breaux, who capped a stellar career with a dominant senior season in which he was 9-1 with a 0.75 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 75 innings pitched as the Golden Tors went 35-3, reaching the state semifinals. An outfielder when not on the mound, Breaux hit .387 with three home runs and 24 RBI that season. He attended Mississippi State before transferring to McNeese State, where he has one season of eligibility remaining.

Coach of the Decade is Barbe’s Glenn Cecchini, who guided the Bucs to five state titles in the nine seasons playoffs were played, was head coach of the USA 18-and-under national team that won the World Cup in Japan in the summer of 2015 and was named national high school coach of the year in 2016 by All-USA Baseball and in 2019 by the National High School Coaches Association.

Meeks joins Breaux on the pitching staff after a spectacular 2019 season at Sam Houston, where he went 10-0 with a 0.69 ERA while hitting .405 with five home runs and 51 RBIs. Meeks is a freshman at McNeese.20170222-Barbe-Sulphur-1(Photo on file: Barbe’s Adam Goree pitches the opening game of the season against the Tors Tuesday night at McMurry Park in Sulphur.) (Kirk Meche / Special to the American Press)

Kirk Meche

Joining those two on the mound are Barbe’s Adam Goree (McNeese) and a pair of South Beauregard aces in Logan Savoy (ULL) and Nick Lee (ULL). Savoy was the 2016 Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year.

The catcher is Silas Ardoin, a four-year starter at Sam Houston who is currently at the University of Texas.

Joining Cecchini in the infield are Barbe’s Kennon Fontenot (ULL), Iowa’s Philip LeBleu (McNeese) and South Beauregard’s Chance Clark (LSU-Eunice).

The outfielders include Barbe’s Beau Jordan (LSU) and Antonio Gauthier (University of New Orleans), DeRidder’s Chipper Menard (ULL signee) and LaGrange’s Colton Frank (ULL).

The utility players are Barbe’s, Tyler Booth (Southeastern Louisiana/LSU-E) and Gunner Leger (ULL), Collin Todd of St. Louis (McNeese) Sulphur’s Austin Nelson (McNeese) and Iota’s Hunter Wriborg (Louisiana College).