There was a time when Catholic High of Baton Rouge standout two-way performer Trip Dobson was convinced Houston was the place for him.
He committed there as a junior and signed with the Cougars in November.
But when Dobson attended orientation sessions at Houston in the spring, it didn’t quite feel the same as his original visit.
“It just didn’t feel right,” said Dobson, who is now headed to the UL Ragin’ Cajuns. “I didn’t feel like I fit in and I just decided to make the decision to switch.”
Dobson played both third base and pitcher for the Bears, who went 38-2 and were recognized by two publications as the national champions in high school baseball this past spring.
Fittingly, Dobson is still on cloud nine from that memorable senior campaign at Catholic High.
“Yes sir, I actually do think about it pretty frequently,” he said. “It was really cool doing that, especially with the group of guys we had on the team.”
In addition to Houston, the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder visited Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Tulane and Kansas State.
Dobson had visited UL as a sophomore, but his interest in considering the Cajuns increased recently after discussions with his travel ball coach — former UL standout outfielder Caleb Adams.
“He really helped me a lot,” Dobson said of Adams. “He contacted them and put in a good word for me, so they decided to offer me.”
Dobson said conversations with former Catholic High catcher Clayton Pourciau also helped him decide to head to Lafayette.
The Cajuns have also added outfielders Brooks Wright and Noah Lewis, Bears pitcher Grant Breaux, as well as Parkview Baptist pitchers Cade Durbin and Sam Mitchell, and Dunham outfielder Josh Lim from the Baton Rouge area.
The unique thing about Dobson is he plans on hitting and pitching for the Cajuns. The son of longtime LSU softball coach Howard Dobson didn’t pitch much until his senior season, but played right fielder as a sophomore and third base the last two seasons.
This past season, he earned first-team All-State recognition after hitting .343 with four home runs at the plate and 4-0 as a pitcher.
“I feel like it’s going to be really difficult,” Dobson said. “I’ll have to do a lot of extra work — pitching or hitting. I’ll have to go throw at other times, because we’ll run out of practice time for me to do that … and I’m OK with that. I’ll have to do extra work which I’m already used to doing now.”
Dobson said UL coach Matt Deggs and his staff are also on board with him attempting to be a two-way starter with the Cajuns.
“They want me to pitch and hit,” Dobson said. “They said I’ll have an opportunity to play infield and also have an opportunity to come in and pitch as well.”
Dobson’s pitching skills weren’t as needed with a deep, talented staff, led by expected first-round Major League draft talent in William Schmidt.
“It certainly made it easier to be able to play behind him,” Dobson said of Schmidt. “It gave you more confidence that you had someone like that on your side. It was really easy to see how good he was and learn from him.”
Along with his confidence to be a two-way performer in college, Dobson is well aware of how much work must be done.
“I really feel like I need to work to have more command on my changeup, because my changeup moves a lot,” Dobson said. “I need to get more command over that and throw it for strikes.
“Hitting and defense-wise, I feel like I need to prepare a little more defensively — be able to catch ground balls and then move into the outfield if I need to, or do whatever they need me to do.”