Shreveport - The No. 17 Centenary baseball team made more history on Saturday as the red-hot Gents won a program record 17th-straight game with an 8-4 victory over the Dallas Crusaders to complete a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend sweep at Shehee Stadium.
The Gents (23-2, 9-0 SCAC), currently ranked No. 17 in the nation in the latest 2021 D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll, tied the previous longest winning streak of 16 games on Friday with a doubleheader sweep, winning 5-1 and 12-5. Centenary is now a perfect 13-0 at home this season, 16-1 in its last 17 home games, and has swept five-straight series. Dallas dropped to 5-13 overall and 3-6 in conference play with Saturday's loss. Centenary owns the longest current winning streak in the country this season, three better than Washington University (St. Louis), who has won 14 in a row.
The Gents, who are a spectacular 32-6 in their last 38 games, have not lost a game since falling 8-5 at Huntingdon back on Feb. 28. The Maroon and White's winning streak began with a three-game home sweep over Dubuque (March 4-6) and continued with a pair of two-game series sweeps over LeTourneau (March 12 and 13), and then the Gents swept Austin College on the road (March 19-20) and Schreiner last weekend at Shehee Stadium.
Centenary tied the previous longest winning streak record of 16 games set by the 2017 team which made the NCAA Tournament and went 35-10 overall. The longest winning streak by a Centenary team in the division 1 era (1978-2011) was 10 by the 1990 squad. The Gents are now just 12 wins away from matching the 2017 team's season win total.
Dallas got on the scoreboard first on Saturday as second baseman Nathan Patton doubled in SS Michael Jaquez, who had walked, with two outs to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead. The Gents tied the game in the fourth as junior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas) delivered an RBI single up the middle to score senior third baseman Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.).
Centenary then took control of the game in the fifth, scoring four runs, to take a 5-1 lead and then added two more in the sixth to lead 7-1 entering the final three frames. Senior RF Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) led off the fifth with a ringing double to left field and senior 1B Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) reached on an infield single with Crowder moving to third base. Dallas reliever Ethan Mann was pulled for Tyler Montemayor and he was greeted rudely as senior 2B Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas) singled sharply through the right side to score Crowder and give the Gents a 2-1 lead with Ludwick moving to third.
Senior left fielder Tyler Welch (Alexandria, La.) then reached on an infield single, driving in Ludwick, and Welch advanced to second on the throw home as Erickson raced to third. Erickson then came home on a wild pitch by Montemayor to make it 4-1. Following a walk by a walk by Haggard and a single by junior C Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas), sophomore DH Cole Collins (Shreveport) laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score the Gents' fourth run of the inning and fifth of the game for a 5-1 lead. The Gents scored a pair in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Crowder and Bridges was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Dallas scored two in the seventh to cut the Gents' lead to 7-3, and Bridges then added a sac fly in the eighth to extend the Centenary lead to 8-3.
Senior Conner Poche (Lutcher, La.) started and went 4.2 innings, allowing just one earned run and three hits with four walks and four strikeouts. Freshman Jacob Colby (Kingwood, Texas) relieved him and went 1.1 innings and allowed two runs, both earned, on one hit and picked up his first-career win. Senior Brock Yates (Bellaire, Texas) pitched 2/3 of an inning and allowed a hit and then sophomore Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) came on pitched well, going the final 2.1 innings to earn his conference-leading seventh save of the season. He allowed just an unearned run and three hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Mann was the losing pitcher for the Crusaders to fall to 1-2
Ludwick was 3-5 at the plate with two runs scored while Erickson, Haggard, and Welch each had two hits. Bridges was 1-2 with a pair of RBI and a walk, Erickson had an RBI and a walk, and Welch had an RBI and two runs scored. Haggard added a walk and scored a run and junior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) was 1-3 with a pair of walks and a run scored from the leadoff spot. Centenary had three extra-base hits, 13 hits total, and stole three bases. Dallas was led on offense by Patton, RF Michael Anderson, and 1B Zachary Taylor who each had two hits and Jaquez went 1-2 with an RBI, a run scored, and two walks.
Centenary will now face the East Texas Baptist University Tigers for a third time this season as the Gents will travel to Marshall, Texas on Tuesday, April 6 for a non-conference game set for 7 p.m. The Gents defeated the Tigers 7-4 back on Feb. 12 at home and then recorded a 13-5 win in Marshall on March 23.
The Gents then return to conference play next weekend as they face the Southwestern Pirates in Georgetown, Texas April 9-10. The series begins on Friday, April 9 with a single game at 6 p.m. and wraps up on Saturday, April 10 with a DH at 1 and 4 p.m.
A link to the Gents' complete 2021 schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2020-21/schedule
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