And Longmont catcher Collin Pool said to thee: Thou Shall Not Steal.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mead became the latest team to test the senior’s rocket right arm. And like so many that came before him this spring, the Mavericks were thwarted.

Pool cut down the 11th baserunner in the 15th stolen-base try against him this season. He also had a big day at the plate, where he had two doubles and a triple in his first three at-bats in the Trojans’ 5-1 win.

By the senior’s fourth plate appearance, Mead, understandably, had seen enough of him for one day — so it intentionally walked him.

“We lost to (Silver) Creek (on Thursday) and just coming back and beating Mead like this was big for us,” Pool said. “We have a hard conference, and we know we’re going to have a lot of tough games coming up, so gaining some momentum is huge.”

When Pool caught Mead’s Alex Benedict stealing in the third inning, it dropped the successful steal attempts against him to a mere 26.7% this spring. To put that into perspective, major leaguers had a 78% success rate in 2024.

Tom Fobes, in his 26 years as Longmont’s coach, said he’s never quite seen this before in the program.

“Usually at 40 or 50% and you’re like, ‘Wow, nice job,’” Fobes said. “And we’ve had some good (catchers), and no, we’ve never had one (finish) at 70%. We have a ways to go, so we’ll see.”

Pool’s big day backed a two-hitter tossed by senior Tyson Hagen, who tamed an offense that’d averaged nine runs coming into the day. With his season earned-run average dwindling under 2.00, he filled up the strike zone all afternoon, fanning 10 while walking just one.

He saved his best for last. After two runners reached by error on Hagen in the fifth, he retired his last seven batters to stop Longmont’s two-game slide.

“We were on a little bit of a skid, so we really needed a win to turn it around mentally,” Hagen said. “We played well overall. Played good defense, hit when we needed to and got the job done. It feels great.”

The loss tightened up the 4A/3A Granite Peaks League, putting Longmont (8-5, 3-3) and Mead (9-4, 3-3) right in the heart of the pack.

The Mavericks, coming in ranked seventh in CHSAA’s 4A standings, are in the midst of one of their best seasons in program history. Despite the loss, it’s time to move on, coach Shawn Macaluso said. Especially with how the week closes for his team, which has home games against No. 23 Silver Creek (Thursday) and No. 9 Windsor (Saturday).

“The kids are working the process, working the system and are believing in it,” Macaluso said. “The kids are buying into the culture. It doesn’t always work out for us, but it has for the most part, and we’ll continue to build on that.”

Longmont, meanwhile, ends the week at home against 5A No. 52 Horizon (Thursday) and 4A No. 5 Golden (Saturday).