SHREVEPORT, La. - Following its first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title and first trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history, the Centenary Gents baseball team and head coach Mike Diaz released a challenging schedule for the 2018 season on Tuesday, December 12.
"We designed our schedule to meet three goals: to have the highest strength or schedule possible through challenging ourselves to play the toughest competition, preparing our guys for the postseason, and to provide our men with a great playing experience," explained Gents Head Coach Mike Diaz. "I think this schedule hits every one of these goals, and we are really excited to see how we stack up this year."
Highlights for the season include a trip to California for the second straight season, which features a game at defending NCAA Champion Cal Lutheran (March 11). Centenary also takes on 2017 NCAA participant UT Tyler four times (February 18 and March 27 in Tyler and February 27 and April 10 in Shreveport).
The Diamond Gents also play a home-and-home midweek series with East Texas Baptist (February 13 in Marshall, April 17 in Shreveport), who finished as runner-ups in the American Southwest Conference Tournament last season.
The Maroon and White begin the season with the Gents Classic in Shreveport February 2-4, playing both Whitworth and Pacific (Ore.) twice. After hosting Belhaven for a pair of games February 9 and 10, Centenary will play the 17-of-18 away from Shehee Stadium. After the opening weekends, Centenary only plays one game at home the rest of February and will be on the road the whole month of March.
The Diamond Gents begin their quest for their second-straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular Season Title March 17 at Dallas. The Centenary game at Pelican State-rival Louisiana College on March 19 is scheduled to be broadcast on Cox Sports.
Following a weekend off at the end of March, the Gents play 11-of-14 games at Shehee Stadium in the month of April to close out the regular season. After the home-opening SCAC series against Southwestern April 6-8 and a midweek game against UT Tyler April 10, the Maroon and White travel to Texas Lutheran for the final road games of the 2018 regular season April 13-14. The Gents finish at home against Austin College and Trinity for the final two weekends of the regular season, including hosting the Tigers for senior weekend April 28-29.
If the Gents finish in the top-4 of the SCAC, they will travel to The Depot at Cleburne Stadium for the Conference Tournament in Cleburne, Texas. It will be the second straight season the SCAC Baseball Championships will be contested at a neutral site.
