Old school Panther signs letter with a new school

BERWICK — Clay Menard had a choice to make as he looked ahead to college baseball: continue as a position player or focus on pitching.

But Centenary College of Louisiana didn’t make him choose. So Menard chose Centenary.

The Berwick High graduate, who helped the Panther make the finals in the LHSAA 3A baseball tournament this spring, signed a letter of intent to attend and play baseball for Centenary of Shreveport.

“They gave me the best opportunity to succeed, academically and athletically,” Menard said after signing the letter Tuesday.

Berwick coaches described Menard in terms that might have been applied to scrappy players in the game’s history.

Berwick head coach Seth Henry described Menard as the “spark plug,” the lead-off hitter who gets on base and makes things happen.

“His ‘compete’ tool is probably his best tool,” Henry said. “Any team he plays on is going to have a chance.”

“In old school terms,” said Lud Henry, a longtime Berwick head coach and now an assistant to his son, “he’s what we called a dirt bag.”

That’s a term of respect.

“He just loves the game,” Lud Henry said.

Menard loves the game so much that he hesitated over giving up everyday play to concentrate on pitching. That’s despite the fact that the GameChanger app says he threw 54-1/3 innings for Berwick this spring and finished with an earned run average of 1.50.

“That was one of the key factors,” Menard said. “I didn’t know if I wanted to give up playing a position to pitch.”
Centenary recruited him as both a pitcher and a middle infielder.

Menard likes the talk about old school baseball.

“I kind of embrace that,” Menard said. “I’m not going to hit a 500-foot home run every time at bat.”

Instead, he focuses on just reaching base.

“You learn what kind of player you are, physically and your mental state,” Menard said

Clearly, Menard isn’t in the game for the stats. He didn’t know that GameChanger reported a .357 batting average with a .485 on-base percentage in 2022.

Those numbers helped Berwick go 33-8 in 2022.

Centenary, meanwhile, went 27-9 this spring and made the school’s second appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament before falling to LaGrange of Texas.