Video: Delgado hosts Region 23 tournament beginning Saturday

NEW ORLEANS – When Delgado Community College, Baton Rouge Community College and Nunez Community College gather on Saturday to open the Region 23 baseball tournament at Tulane’s Turchin Stadium, there will be no secrets.

That’s what happens when teams meet six times each in the regular season.

The first day of the tournament features another round-robin – the seventh meeting of the year for each. Nunez (10-35, 3-9) and BRCC (14-39, 6-6) meet in the opening game, followed by Delgado (32-12, 9-3) against Nunez in the second game and Delgado and BRCC in the nightcap.

“I’m not a real big fan of our format, but it is what it is,” Delgado coach Joe Scheuermann said. “It’s hard to beat anybody six times, much less seven when it counts.

“We’ve got to come back to defend our championship. It’s the (tournament) format we use in (the South Central District tournament) the last 7-8 years.”

Delgado was supposed to host the tourney at their home ballpark, Kirsch Rooney Stadium, but heavy rains late this week in New Orleans led to the move of the event to Tulane’s home field.

The Dolphins, who last played a week ago against fifth-ranked Northwest Florida State College, lost the top two hitters in their lineup – center fielder Connor Feustle and second baseman Brandon Bruiglio – to injury in an April 17 doubleheader against Wharton County Junior College in Lake Charles.

“We’re trying to lick our wounds and put a couple of our guys back together,” Scheuermann said. “Hopefully we’ll be healthy after the week off.”

At the end of the first day, one of two scenarios will exist. Either one team is undefeated and another eliminated, in which case the 1-1 team would need to beat the 2-0 team twice, or all three teams have one loss and Delgado, as the top seed, would get a bye into the winner-take-all final.

“If you’re 2-0, somebody’s got to come back and beat you two days in a row,” Scheuermann said. “You’ve got to play ‘em one at a time.”

Designated hitter Ross Scelfo leads Delgado with a .411 average. Third baseman Grant Schulz tops the Dolphins with 43 RBIs, while catcher Tyler McManus has a team-high eight home runs. Payton Russell and Daniel Dugas each have picked up five victories to lead the pitching staff.

Nunez is led by two-way player Dominic Curole, who leads the team in innings pitched, home runs and RBI, while BRCC is paced by Cameron Crawford, who leads the Bears in average and stolen bases.

The Region 23 winner will advance to the South Central District championship – another three-team, double-elimination format – next weekend in Missouri. The Region 16 winner will host the event, with that winner advancing to the Junior College World Series.

The tournament was set to begin Friday, but the forecast for inclement weather pushed back the start until Saturday.

All Delgado games this weekend are scheduled to be broadcast on Dolphin Radio 99.1 FM and dolphinradio.org.

TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Saturday, May 11 — Day 1
Game 1          12:00               Baton Rouge (#2) vs. Nunez (#3)
Game 2           3:00                Delgado (#1) vs. Nunez
Game 3           6:00                Baton Rouge vs. Delgado

Day 2
Scenario #1 – If one team is 0-2, they are eliminated
Game 4           1:00                 1-1 team vs. 2-0 team. If 2-0 team wins, they are champions.

Scenario #2- If all teams are 1-1 following the 1^st day, the #1 seed will receive the bye to Game 5
Game 4           1:00                 #2 vs. #3

Day 3
Scenario #1
Game 5           1:00                 If both teams are 2-1

Scenario #2
Game 5           1:00                 Winner of Game 4 vs. #1 seed

NOTES: Seeding of the Tournament will be based on conference finish (best regular season record against conference teams). The higher seed will be the home team on the first day only.  A coin flip will determine the home team on the subsequent days. Game times may be altered due to weather. All games are 9 innings with NJCAA Run-Rule applicable except in Championship Games.  All Championship Games are 9 innings.  In the event of rain postponements, no team will be required to play more than 2 games on a single day. All NJCAA Handbook Tournament Rules in Section 5 will be followed.  Each game will have no less than three umpires assigned by Florida Collegiate Umpires Association.