If the Acadiana Christian School baseball team knows one thing, it’s that they can always count on each other. 

After giving up three runs and throwing nearly 20 balls out of the strike zone against the Acadiana Christian Defenders, nobody would’ve blamed head coach John Nguyen if he would’ve decided to make a pitching change early in the game. Nguyen knew, however, that his team had been in this position before and just needed to have faith in one another and a higher power.

“This is probably the fourth time that this has happened,” Nguyen said. “One time we weren’t able to get out of it, but three times we’ve been able to fight and pull out the win. It’s good to see. Kids these days, they get down on themselves and then begin to shut down. This year, we put God first and when we do that, they play a lot better.”

The turnaround happened quickly. Two fly outs and a strikeout saw the Lions take defensive control of the game in the second inning, but the offensive production was still moving slowly. 

That all changed in the fifth inning when pitcher Jaxon Olivier hit a deep triple to center field, allowing three runners to score as the Lions took a 6-3 lead. Olivier crossed home plate to add another run to the scoreboard, with Mason Broome’s single and Wes Landry’s flyout in the sixth inning adding the eighth and ninth runs, respectively. 

“I just thought about my teammates,” Olivier said about how he felt when he hit his triple. “All of our losses have kind of been on us, we played down on ourselves. For me, I knew that I had to maintain my composure because if I got down on myself, my team was going to get down too .I just put the team on my back and waited for my pitch.” 

Olivier’s time on the mound resulted in four strikeouts and four runs allowed. Isaiah Burch closed out the game for the Lions, adding two more strikeouts. 

The win avenged one of ACS’ losses from earlier this season, but rematches with losses two and three will be necessary if the Lions want to claim a state title this year. 

In the semifinals, Acadiana Christian will battle with CHA Northeast, who defeated the Lions 11-2 earlier in April. A win against them on Friday would see ACS likely face off against top-seeded Christian Home Educators Fellowship in the final. CHEF defeated ACS 12-2 on March 1. 

With familiar foes ahead of them and momentum behind them, Nguyen said the key to victory this weekend will be aggression and capitalizing on mistakes. 

“You have to be aggressive. If you don’t jump on them, they’re going to jump on you and they don’t look back,” he said. “You have to be the first one to take off, we have to come out aggressively. That’s the only way that we can win and that’s what the team wants. We only have three losses this season, so we’re calling this the revenge tour. All the teams we lost to, we get to see them in the playoffs, semifinals and finals.”

The ACEL semifinals will take place on Friday. Acadiana Christian will play at 5 p.m. at Holy Savior Menard Central High School in Alexandria, with CHEF battling No. 4 Good Samaritan Fellowship immediately after. The state championship game will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.