Sam Houston’s Andrew Glass (left) and Sulphur’s Jake Brown look to lead their respective teams on deep playoff runs. Both teams open the Class 5A playoffs today with home games at 6 p.m. (Kirk Meche / Special to the American Press)

Sulphur is looking to put its recent postseason history behind them, while Sam Houston gets a rematch with District 3-5A rival Lafayette today when both open the Class 5A playoffs at home.

The fourth-ranked Tors will host No. 29 Northshore at 6 p.m., while the No. 7 Broncos will take on No. 26 Lafayette at 6 p.m.

Both teams look to take the first step to another deep playoff run.

Sam Houston lost in the semifinals to Barbe last season and made it to the Class 5A finals in 2019.

The Tors reached the finals in 2018, but lost in the first round in 2019 and 2021 with the 2020 postseason lost to COVID-19.

“It is a different team,” Sulphur head coach Sam Moore said. “We are playing really good baseball right now.

“We are having a great year. We are looking to be optimistic about it. We are not looking at the past. We are just looking ahead to today and Northshore. We are just going to go out there and play our game. If we play our game, we will be okay.

“They (Northshore) are competitive. They play in a tough district over there. In the past, they have been a scrappy ball club, and we expect their best. We know it is going to be a seven-inning ballgame and a tight game.”

The Tors (27-7) have won eight of their last nine games with a balanced offense — .311 team average — and solid pitching with a 2.22 team earned run average. Jake Brown, Dillion Bird and Gage Trahan are batting over .300 with 26 RBI each. Brown (6-3, 1.25 ERA) and Kohl Navarre (5-0, 5 saves, 1.95 ERA) led the Tors pitching staff.

“We are playing well, collectively, as a team,” Moore said. “We are hitting the ball, getting good pitching and playing good defense.

“We are playing with a lot of energy, and we are hoping that energy carries over to the playoffs.”

The Broncos (24-7) and Lions split a pair of regular-season meetings.

“I felt like we had the first game won, and we had a big base running error late in the game, which would have pretty much tied the game up,’ Sam Houston head coach Chad Hebert said. “I feel like we just didn’t pitch well in the first game. In the second game, we got 12 strikeouts from Griffin (Hebert).

“I feel like they haven’t seen (Andrew) Glass, which is our No. 1. With Griffin in relief and everybody ready, I think we will be fine. If we don’t walk anyone or hit by a pitch and eliminate the free bases, I think we will be fine.”

Sam Houston has won 6 of 8 since the Lafayette series, taking advantage of its speed on the bases with 28 stolen bases led by Luke Yuhasz (7), Carson Devillier (5) and Kaden Walker (4).

“We have really been executing bunts, hit-and-runs and stealing the bases when we needed to,” Hebert said.