Growth Spurt: ARCA reaches first baseball state semifinal
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
With Loyola Prep of Shreveport breathing down its neck, loading the bases with nobody out and the tying run at second base in the bottom of the seventh, Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy exhibited the kind of growth fourth-year coach Tyler Jensen was searching for.
The Eagles, already up a game in last week’s best-of-three Division III select quarterfinal series, were clinging to a two-run lead when relief pitcher Vance Laborde entered the game. He had experienced late-inning drama before, but nothing quite like this with the opportunity for his team to advance to the state semifinals for the first time in their brief history.
Laborde coaxed a pop up on a bunt attempt, Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy catcher Micah Porche erased a runner trying to steal, and Laborde got the final out on a fly ball to Carter Mackay in right field, cementing a 6-5 victory at the Youngsville Sports Complex.
“We had moments like that earlier in the year,” Jensen said. “I told our coaches that sometimes you learn about yourselves getting out of those situations that when you’re in the postseason, you’ve been there before. There’s not all of this panic, and to our guys’ credit, we didn’t panic. We made a couple of plays.
“The postseason’s hard,” Jensen said. “It seems like the strike zone’s a little bit smaller when you’re pitching, and bigger when you’re hitting. You can’t take things like flyballs for granted. It’s a whole different level of pressure that kids aren’t used to all of the time. I thought we handled it pretty well.”
Four years after leaving his alma mater at Central Catholic in Morgan City, Jensen had steadily built ARCA into one that’s simply taken off in the postseason. The Eagles, after a first-round bye, swept No. 13 The Willow School and dealt with weather conditions and a determined Loyola squad to sweep last week’s quarterfinal in a pair of one-run victories.
No. 4 ARCA (28-6) travels to No. 1 Vandebilt Catholic (29-10) in a best-of-three Division II select state semifinal series that begins at 6 p.m. Friday. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday at 1 and 3:30 p.m., if necessary.
“We were very fortunate to get those games in because the weather was awful,” Jensen said of the quarterfinal round. “We were exhausted when it was over and thankful we won in two and liked that our guys had a bit of a break before we started worrying about our next opponent.”
Jensen, a 2005 graduate of Central Catholic, coached the Eagles for 10 seasons, leading his team to the Class 1A state championship in 2016 – one of five for the program.
CCMC was a consistent winner under Jensen with three additional trips to the state championship game, finishing runner-up in 2012, ’13, and ’17. The Eagles had also reached the semifinal round three times (’14, ’15,’19) during his tenure.
ARCA, located in the bustling community of Youngsville, opened a K-12 school, which now has close to 4,000 students.
The school opted to bring along its football program at a more gradual pace, playing two junior varsity seasons, before ramping up this year’s inaugural campaign as a part of District 4-4A with Teurlings Catholic, Northside, and Westgate.
“It was tough,” Jensen said of leaving CCMC. “Professionally, it was probably the toughest decision I’ve ever made. We were there for 10 years. It had been all I’d ever known. The idea of starting something from the ground up was always intriguing to me.
“Ascension Episcopal was in our (1A) district, and I kind of got to see (baseball coach Lonny Landry) build their program from the ground up,” Jensen said. “I knew it would be a tough, tedious process. I knew it would be very difficult. We had a lot of success at Central Catholic. We felt we did a good job of getting the program back where it needed to be. I wanted to leave it better than I found it. I felt the program was in a really good spot.”
Jensen was intrigued by the challenge ARCA presented.
There were no baseballs or on-campus field to begin with for a sprawling campus that has a football facility with modern amenities such as artificial turf and an all-weather track.
The Youngsville Sports Complex, considered among the best in the state, has been home to ARCA’s baseball team and recently added a pair of college-sized baseball fields with turf infields and grass outfields.
“I was personally looking for a different type of challenge, which, starting from scratch, is completely different,” Jensen said. “Something about it was alluring. I met the principal and the leadership and loved what I heard. The area is booming. I knew there were big plans for a sport complex eventually, with an expansion that would one day be our field.”
ARCA dove into the deep end of the pool in its first season, playing varsity from the onset, and won 10 games. That improved by two games the following season, and Jensen said he could see the building blocks starting to fall in place when his middle school program won the South Lafayette Middle School league.
“I could see the potential with this group,” he said. “It was just to get them to stay here. They developed, and they’ve done a tremendous job of buying into what we’ve preached to them. Right now, we’re playing pretty good baseball with some experienced kids that have played a lot. They have a lot of confidence right now.”
ARCA made its postseason debut in 2025 and defeated E.D. White, 3-2, in the first game of their regional series. The homestanding Cardinals responded with a sweep of the Eagles in their next two games, 8-1, and broke open a 2-all game in the fifth for a 6-2 win in the finale.
“We didn’t make the playoffs first year in D3,” Jensen said. “We weren’t ready for that (playoffs) yet. Last year, we made a pretty big jump (25-10) because of this year’s seniors, who were juniors and going from a sophomore to a junior, physically. We were close as a team last year. We just weren’t quite good enough, just weren’t mature enough physically and mentally.
“We felt this year we were ready to take the next step. They (E.D. White) got a big two-out hit in the fifth, and we made an error which kind of snowballed things,” Jensen said. “We were right there. Mentally, we weren’t ready for the moment yet.”
With eight returning starters and four pitchers, ARCA appeared to be built for a deeper run this season.
Jensen said a quartet of seniors was going into their fourth season as starters – Beau Cormier, Emric McAdams, Keegan Handschin, and Spencer Glaeser. They had been the program’s building blocks, and Porche, a transfer, was another senior that’s contributed to the team’s leadership and maturity.
“We have some kids that have played a lot,” Jensen said. “We felt like last year, there were some close games we just couldn’t turn that corner. The last two years, we couldn’t win those close games. There were some games that were tight and could have gone either way, and we found a way to win this year. It made us look at each other and say that we had something pretty good here.”
ARCA opened the season with seven wins in its first eight games, including a sweep of CCMC, which is still playing in the Division IV select playoffs.
There were two defining instances in the first month of the season that were examples of this team’s determination, which it may have lacked in previous seasons.
Over a three-day period in March, the Eagles went down to the wire in road games with Cecilia and Terrebonne to register wins that increased their record to 11-2.
ARCA rallied from a deficit in the seventh inning against Cecilia when Cormier ripped a three-run homer in the top of the seventh for an 8-6 triumph. The Eagles faced similar consequences at Terrebonne, having to rally from a two-run deficit, and were down to their final out, when McAdams cranked a three-run homer in the top of the seventh for a 5-4 victory.
“Even though we kind of knew it,” Jensen said, “We just kind of proved it to ourselves what kind of team we were. We just had to do it.”
ARCA was closing in on its first showdown in District 5-3A play. The Eagles traveled to reigning Division III non-select state runner-up Erath in a matchup of undefeated teams.
The Bobcats, which won last year’s game 3-0, took an 8-5 victory in a game that became a turning point for the Eagles.
“We started the Erath game so flat,” Jensen said. “We felt like we were playing well and feeling good about ourselves. We were throwing a lot of strikes, making a lot of plays. We took the lead and then did the same thing in the third inning. We allowed the big inning to kind of eat us. We made six errors in the game, and that’s not a recipe for success for us.
“We don’t get on the mound and strike out 15 people; we have to be able to play defense behind us,” Jensen said. “We talked after the game about the season going one of two ways: it can motivate us, help us to learn how to handle those moments. Besides the playoffs last year, which was one of the biggest games, biggest moments we had, and we just didn’t handle it well. It was a good opportunity for us to learn, and I feel like it’s been positive for us in the postseason.”
The Eagles closed out the regular season, winning four of their last five games, to earn the No. 4 seed and an opening-round bye for the second consecutive season.
Pitching has been a strong suit this season for ARCA with juniors Sebastian Rideaux (6-3, 1.688 ERA) and Cole Schexnaider (9-0, 1.273 ERA) leading the way. The Eagles have also had help on the mound from Cormier, Jude Norris, and Laborde.
Rideaux, who plays center field when not pitching, is the team’s top hitter with a .343 average, 37 runs scored, and 17 RBIs. Cormier, also a first baseman, bats .340 with 2 homers, 31 RBIs and 24 runs scored, while junior outfielder Michael Batiste Jr. is hitting .309 with 2 homers, 29 RBIs and 30 runs.
“Our strength is we have good depth through our lineup,” Jensen said. “Last year, once you got past the top the six guys, we had a bit of a lull in the order. That was because of a lack of experience. We have more guys with way more at-bats that are having more success. We go into every game knowing it could come from anybody. We do have good depth throughout, and we have tons of confidence in everybody who steps in the box.”
Since the setback to Erath, ARCA has reeled off 17 wins in its last 19 games.
The Eagles won the school’s first playoff series with a 13-3 run-rule victory and 9-5 verdict against Willow.
“They were a pretty good opponent,” Jensen said. “We played well, especially in game one. We swung the bats. In game two, we were up 8-0 and we walked some guys and made a few errors. They scored five in the fifth and sixth innings, then we answered back. We were in control of the game.”
Rideaux had a five-hit, complete-game effort in the opening game of the quarterfinal series with Loyola. He didn’t allow an earned run and walked three.
ARCA broke a 1-1 tie with a run in the fifth inning on Batiste’s RBI.
The two teams matched two-run second innings in the second game when the Eagles, who stole five bases in the game, surged to a 6-2 lead in the fifth. Rideaux had two hits and drove in a run along with junior second baseman Jackson Kretzer (2 RBIs) and Mackay.
Schexnaider worked into the bottom of the seventh before Laborde came into a pressure-packed moment and delivered for his team.
“He had closed some games and started some games throughout the season,” Jensen said. “He’s the quarterback in football. He’s got the right mentality for it.”
ARCA found itself in a wait-and-see mode on its semifinal opponent. Vandebilt and St. Michael the Archangel split the first two games of their series and were locked in a fierce battle in the third and deciding game when the Terriers outlasted the Warriors, 9-7, on Sunday.
“We talked at practice on Monday, we’re not just happy, we’re not satisfied to be here,” Jensen said. “You’ve still got to stop and look around a bit and realize what you’ve accomplished and what you’re doing. It’s full steam ahead of what’s next and getting better at practice that day.
“It’s great, I’m happy for our players and our school and school community,” Jensen said. “There’s been a lot of outpouring from people. It is a tight-knit community even though it’s so big. It’s been cool to see what sports can do to bring people together a little bit. Anything to help get our school’s name out there. We feel that there’s a lot of people that don’t know who we truly are.”