John Curtis

Catholic High senior pitcher Lucas Lawrence didn’t allow a torn ACL in November to take way his final season.

Instead of a standard nine-month recovery Lawrence, an Ole Miss signee, was back in five months to help the Bears push toward a third straight Division I select state championship.

Lawrence pitched the first no-hitter of his career and led No. 2 Catholic to a 5-0 win against No. 3 John Curtis in the opening game in a best-of-three state semifinal series at Grizzly Field.

“It’s awesome,” Lawrence said. “Considering what I went through this offseason with my surgery and being able to bounce back was special. To leave a legacy at this field with a no-hitter ... there’s no better feeling.”

Catholic (33-5) looks to close out the series with John Curtis (32-9) at 4 p.m. Friday.

“How cool is it to have a guy who went through what he did to this point to have that cool moment,” Catholic coach Brad Bass. “He’s got a high level of belief. He’s got great stuff. I’m so happy for him.”

Lawrence (4-0) struck out eight, walked three and hit two batters, handing Curtis only its second loss in its past 13 games.

“We didn’t execute well offensively, especially with our chances which we had done a good job of doing for the most part this year,” John Curtis coach Jeff Curtis said. “They did a better job of executing than we did.”

Catholic, which took led 2-0 on Mills Richardson’s single in the first and Hays Segar’s sacrifice fly in the third, increased that margin to 5-0 with a three-run fourth.