Delgado flashes vast potential in season opening win over Bryant & Stratton

NEW ORLEANS – He may not be around long enough to win another 1,000 games but Delgado baseball coach Joe Scheuermann is poised to win a slew of games in 2021, providing there are no unexpected, unwelcome interruptions to the season.

Now on the job for 30 years, Scheuermann is well past the 1,000 victory mark, which he reached in 2019.

A year ago, Delgado was a modest 13-9 when the beast we have come to know as COVID-19 invaded our lives, stopping the baseball season cold.

Nearly a year after broadcasting a Delgado game on March 5, 2020 against Lewis Clark, a Dolphin victory, I had the pleasure of doing a Dolphin game Thursday afternoon.

It was nice to be back at historic Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.

On a cold, windy, gray day, Delgado had its way with Bryant & Stratton in 13-3 victory in a game seen live via www.delgadoathletics.com in the opening game of the annual Rags Scheuermann Memorial Tournament.

The game ended in six innings by the 10-run rule.

After falling behind 1-0, the Dolphins answered with two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the lead for good.

After scoring twice more in the second inning to make it 4-1, the Bobcats cut the deficit to 4-2 in the top of the third before the Dolphins broke it open with five runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a commanding 9-2 lead.

After Bryant & Stratton added a run in the fourth inning, Delgado answered with a run of its own to make it 10-3. Delgado finished it with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Most impressive was the overall effort.

Chris Olivier pitched three and a third innings to get the win, striking out six, while Will Reed went two and two-third shutout innings in relief.

The Dolphins banged out 13 hits, swinging the bats very well.

Defensively, Delgado was flawless, playing errorless ball, turning a pair of nifty double plays and throwing out a would-be base stealer.

Leading the attack was Brayden Jobert, an LSU signee and Nicholls transfer.

Jobert went 3-for-3 with a triple and three RBI.

Mikey Stutes had two hits, including a triple and three RBI while Brayden Caskey had two hits, drove in a pair of runs and scored twice.

With a lot of returning players from a year ago, Scheuermann bolstered his roster with a transfer from McNeese and other top first-year players.

“The kids really did a great job to get us to this point,” Scheuermann said. “It was good to see us back on the field. I really like this club. I think we have tremendous upside, a great future ahead of us. I think we play good infield defense, we’re going to throw the ball around the plate quite often and we swing the bats pretty good. Jobert is what we expected as an LSU signee.”

Delgado plays two games on Friday, squaring off with Bryant & Sratton at 3 p.m. before taking on Pensacola Jr. College. You can watch both games at www.delgadoathletics.com.

If initial impressions mean anything, this is a Delgado team worth your time watching.