Maurepas, La., has no stop signs.
There are no stoplights, either — only three gas stations.
The town gets by, though, seeing as it only has one two-lane highway.
Sue’s Café, Val’s Marina and Red’s are the only three restaurants, but don’t ask Kade Scivicque to pick which one is best — that’s too tough of a call for him.
Scivicque, the surprise of the pre-Southeastern Conference season for the No. 8 Tigers (14-2) and the only Maurepas resident ever to don the purple and gold, leads LSU with a .455 average and is part of the three-man catcher rotation that always has him unsure if and where he’ll be in the lineup when he gets to the ballpark.
But it’s the winding road Scivicque took to get to Baton Rouge that’s quirkier than his hometown.
While he was a senior trying to get noticed at Maurepas High School, Scivicque’s first cousin did what any family member would and put a call in to a friend — LSU assistant coach Will Davis.
“Just trying to do the kid a favor,” Davis remembered. “I’d never seen the kid play and I figured, ‘[He’s] from Maurepas, I’m sure he’s a decent player. But how good can he be? Nothing for us.’”
Scivicque and Davis shared a 15-minute phone call, chatting about recruiting advice. Scivicque told Davis he was going to a tryout for Southwest Mississippi Community College and shortly thereafter, Davis put a call in to the head coach of Baton Rouge Community College on Scivicque’s behalf.
Scivicque’s tryout paid off, and he committed to SMCC, with Louisiana College as his only other offer out of high school. He told Davis the good news in person when the two ran into each other at a high school tournament where Davis’ brother was playing.
The following spring, as Davis pored over statistics of junior college prospects, a familiar named popped on screen.
“He was [SMCC]’s leading hitter,” Davis said. “I put it in the back of my mind, ‘Hey, we may need to go see this kid.’”
Turns out, Davis would barely need to leave his office.
Playing summer ball with the Baton Rouge White Sox for the third straight summer, Scivicque and his team came to Alex Box Stadium for a weekend series after his freshman season at SMCC.
“He ends up hitting a couple homers, a couple balls off the wall, really good arm behind the plate and just a grinder,” Davis said. “It was like 110 degrees and they were beating some team like 15-0 and he’s still blocking everything behind the plate.”
Davis was so impressed, he convinced LSU coach Paul Mainieri to watch a game.
“I really liked how his demeanor was,” Mainieri said. “He’s a big, strong kid. I thought he had some arm strength, and I thought the ball jumped off his bat.”
White Sox head coach Ronnie Rantz, a former LSU pitcher, said the demeanor the coaches saw didn’t manifest overnight.
Rantz remembered the first summer he coached Scivicque, when the rising high school senior still concentrated on pitching; he hit under .200 and had trouble translating his small school success to an older, more competitive environment.
“His body matured, he got a little bigger and stronger, and he became a real competitive kid,” Rantz said. “He matured as a man, physically and mentally. I knew he was good enough to play college ball after his second summer with me.”
Other schools began to agree with Rantz. Southern Miss, Southeastern and Mississippi State began to call.
But the dream was LSU.
Davis and staff wanted to play the process slowly, but were pressured by the other schools inquiring, especially when UNO came calling and offered Scivicque a spot on their team after his freshman season.
With Ty Ross coming back in 2013 and fellow freshmen Chris Chinea and Michael Barash also in the mix, LSU didn’t need another catcher, but Scivicque was told he could come the following year and compete with the veterans.
He accepted.
“It’s a dream come true,” Scivicque said. “I’ve always dreamed of playing baseball here. I’ve always come to all the games, supported LSU and been a big fan.”
The road hasn’t been without bumps. Mainieri said there was a period of adjustment for Scivicque, when he was forced to learn nuances of the game and face criticism he never received in small town Maurepas.
“He never hung his head,” Mainieri said. “He didn’t get down on himself, and he wanted to learn. He never took it personal when the coaches were pushing him and I started to see throughout the fall that he kept improving.”
Scivicque said the switch clicked after Christmas, as he came back to school more locked in — at the plate and in the classroom — resulting in his early season success.
For Davis, each of Scivicque’s hits is a reminder of the crazy turn of events that got him from the “backroads and backfields” to Baton Rouge.
“At the time, I was just doing it out of the goodness of my heart,” Davis said. “I never dreamed the kid would be good enough to play for LSU being from Maurepas. It’s good to know if you do things the right way, sometimes they do come full circle.”