Marshall, Texas – The Centenary baseball team opened its 2020 season on Friday with a 5-3 road victory over the East Texas Baptist University Tigers in a non-conference game on Friday night at Woods Field.
The Gents and Tigers will then meet on Saturday at Shehee Stadium in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Live stats and live video will be available for Saturday's games. Centenary has won eight of the last 12 matchups between the two teams following Friday's season-opening victory.
Centenary jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after three innings as redshirt freshman Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) doubled in junior Peyton Cormane (Pineville, La.) from third base for the Gents' first run and then senior right fielder Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) hit a two-run home run to extend the Maroon and White's lead to 3-0.
The Tigers got a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Jake Miller but then Centenary responded with their fourth run of the game in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by junior outfielder Luke Royle (Dodge City, Kan.).
An RBI single by junior third baseman Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.) scoring Crowder made it 5-1 Gents in the top of the eighth. ETBU rallied for two runs in the bottom half of the eighth on a two-run homer by left fielder Will Kelley to make it 5-3.
ETBU put two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth but Royle got the clutch save as he struck out Miller swinging with the tying runs in scoring position to seal the win. Junior left hander Connor Lee started the game for Centenary and picked up the win as he threw 6.2 innings and allowed just one run on six hits. He struck out five and walked just two as he threw 105 pitches. Junior Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) relived Lee and went an inning as he allowed two runs on one hit, walked four and struck out one.
ETBU used four pitchers in the game as starter Derrick Findley took the loss as he allowed six hits and three runs, all earned, in three innings. He walked one and did not record any strikeouts. Centenary had 10 hits and committed two errors while ETBU collected nine hits and did not commit an error. The Tigers left 13 men on base and struck out eight times. Haggard led the way for the Gents with three hits and Crowder had a hit, two RBI, and two runs scored. Kelley had three hits as well to lead the Tigers.
Next up for the Gents is a non-conference game at Louisiana College on Friday, Feb. 14 at 4 p.m. Centenary will then host Louisiana College a day later in a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 2 and 5 p.m. Centenary is on the road for eight games until returning home to play host to Trinity for a three-game series (Feb. 13-14) to open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.
The Gents will play 40 regular-season games, 15 at home and 25 road/neutral contests. Centenary is away from home for their final seven games of the year with a pair of SCAC series' versus University of Dallas and Texas Lutheran and a single game at Louisiana College. The Maroon and White will play eight of 12 games at home from March 27 to April 14.
A link to the complete 2020 schedule can be found here: www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2019-20/schedule
Live stats and live video are available for all home games and admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic events. #GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
