The Delgado baseball team is celebrating its 50th anniversary as Louisiana’s first junior college athletics program.
Founded by Louis “Rags” Scheuermann, Delgado joined the national junior college baseball ranks in 1976 and has had plenty of success since. Scheuermann’s son, Joe, became the Dolphins’ coach in 1990 following his father’s retirement and still serves in that role after more than 1,200 wins.
Delgado has reached the NJCAA World Series six times with teams primarily made up of players from the New Orleans area. A 50th anniversary celebration will take place Saturday at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium, where the Dolphins play home baseball games.
“I was a 13-year-old kid when my dad started this program,” Joe Scheuermann said. “Now here we are, 50 years later. The old phrase time moves fast when you’re having fun is really what happened here. My dad had a dream, and I’m trying to fulfill what he started.”
Saturday’s anniversary event will include Delgado baseball alumni, some of which played on the program’s first team.
“(This Saturday) is a celebration of what our program is about,” Scheuermann said. “At the end of the first year, (Rags Scheuremann) presented a plaque to the team that said, ‘the start of an image.’ We’re pretty proud of the image that we’re carrying on.”
It’ll be a busy weekend for Delgado, which plays a doubleheader on Friday in Summit, Mississippi, before returning home for Saturday’s celebration followed by a home game on Sunday against Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
This year’s Delgado team has 27 freshmen, making it one of the youngest groups Scheuermann has coached in his 36 years leading the program.
“(27 freshmen) is a very unique situation here,” Scheuermann said. “It’s a year of us trying to mature quicker than we’re normally used to doing. It’s a work in progress, but we’re getting better every day.”
Lakeshore alum Dominick Letort and Rummel alum Gavin Kennedy are off to strong starts at the plate for Delgado. The two freshmen have batting averages of better than .400.
Freshmen Sebastian Rhoades and Riley Rowell have also been key pieces this season. Rhodes has shined as Delgado’s shortstop, and Rowell has made a two-way impact as a hitter and a pitcher.
Delgado pitcher Giancarlo Arencibia, a former Rummel star, has been a fixture in the weekend rotation as a freshman. The right-hander has a 2.34 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 42⅓ innings.
STAFF PHOTO BY SPENCER URQUHART
Rummel alum Giancarlo Arencibia is a returning sophomore who was a go-to starting pitcher as a freshman. He and sophomore Aidan Grab, a Mandeville graduate, have been Delgado’s top starting pitchers this season.
“I’ve been working on my changeup a lot more (this season),” Arencibia said. “We have confidence in our rotation, and I like the group of guys that I’m with. It’s going to be a good weekend celebrating 50 years.”
Arencibia is committed to UNO for next season.
Delgado (6-7) has 27 regular-season games left on its schedule. The Dolphins last reached the NJCAA World Series in 2023.
Scheuermann hopes Saturday’s event will become an annual occurrence. The celebration begins at 4 p.m. with a live band and local food vendors.
“When my father started this program, we were the only junior college (in Louisiana) to play athletics for a long time after that,” Scheuermann said. “He was a trailblazer for what was to come. We’re proud of that.”