#18 Baseball Set To Face St. Thomas In Weekend Series at Home

Shreveport - The No. 18 Centenary baseball team will face the St. Thomas Celts in a three-game weekend series in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. at Shehee Stadium.

The series wraps up with a single game on Sunday at Noon. Live video will be available for all three games of the series at the links below:

Live video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary

*Live stats will NOT be available for Saturday's games but will be available for Sunday's game at the following link: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2020-21/boxscores/20210418_7mxh.xml

The No. 18 Gents (24-5, 9-3 SCAC) are ranked in the latest 2021 D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll for the fifth-consecutive week. St. Thomas enters the series at 14-10 overall and 3-9 in league play after winning two of three at Austin College last weekend.

The Maroon and White were finally cooled off by an opponent, a rare occurrence this season, as they were swept at Southwestern last weekend. Centenary, ranked No. 14 in last weeks' poll, entered the series riding a nation's best and program-record 18-game winning streak. 

Despite the disappointing weekend, the Gents are still an impressive 33-9 in their last 42 games dating back to last season and are 10-4 on the road this season. The Gents will be happy to be playing at home this weekend as they are a perfect 13-0 at Shehee Stadium this season and 16-1 in their last 17 games.

Centenary has matched the 2017 Gents for the best start to a season in the division III era (2012-present) as '17 Gents squad also started 24-5 on their way to a 35-win season and an NCAA Tournament appearance. 

The Gents have scored in double figures 13 times this season, reaching 12 or more run in a game eight times and have scored 15 or more three times including a season-high 16 once. Centenary currently leads the SCAC in team batting average (.328), RBI (270), hits (327), runs scored (243), total bases (468), and ERA (347) and rank third in slugging and fourth in on-base percentage. 

Senior P/1B Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) leads the team and ranks second in the conference with a .407 batting average and lead the conference in RBI with 37. He is also second in runs scored (33) and hits (46), fifth in on-base percentage (.496) and 10^th in slugging (.566). Senior OF Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) is hitting .333 with a league-high 39 runs scored and is sixth in both OBP (.493) and slugging (.581). he has a team-best 16 extra-base hits, 24 RBI and is tied for the team lead in stolen bases with 13. Crowder is tied for second in the conference in both doubles (9) and triples (4).

Senior 2B Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas) is the league leader in hits (48), fifth in batting average (.397), and tied for ninth in RBI with 28. He has an OBP of .451 and is slugging .463. He has 21 runs scored and six extra-base hits. One of his most impressive stats is the fact that he has only struck out six times in a team-high 121 at-bats while walking an equal number of times (6).

Junior catcher Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) is fourth in the league with 30 RBI and is hitting .284 with an OBP of .396 and is slugging .394. He has 31 hits and eight extra-base hits. Junior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas) is hitting .352 (.383 OBP/.537 slugging) with a team-high four home runs. His 38 total hits are tied for sixth-best in the league and he has stolen eight bases.

Junior C/OF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) is batting .330 (.430 OBP/.434 slugging) and is tied for third in the conference in runs (31) and tied for eighth in hits (36). He has 20 RBI, eight extra-base hits, and is tied for Crowder for the team lead in stolen bases with 13. Senior 3B Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.) is hitting .270 with an OBP and slugging percentage of .396. He has 30 hits, 28 runs scored (ninth in league), 19 RBI, three homers, and five doubles.

Ludwick (1), Crowder (2), Robinson (3), and Erickson (5) all rank in the top five in total bases in the conference and Crowder, Ludwick, and Hewitt are all in the top 10 in walks. Haggard and Crowder are first and second in the league in HBP, as they have been hit a combined 25 times.

Senior lefty Connor Lee (Sugarland, Texas) has made a team-leading 11 starts and is 5-1 with a 4.37 ERA. He has 34 strikeouts in a team-high, and league-leading, 55.2 innings pitched and has only walked eight batters all season. Lee ranks eighth in the league in ERA, ninth in opposing batting average

The versatile Ludwick is 6-1 with a 3.30 ERA (fourth-lowest in the SCAC) and has held opposing batters to a scant .171 batting average to rank second in the conference. His 43.2 IP are second-most in the league and his 50 K's lead the conference as do his six wins. Senior Conner Poche (Lutcher, La.) is a perfect 4-0 with a conference and team-low 2.15 ERA. His four wins are third-most in the league. Sophomore Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) leads the conference in saves with seven and has a solid 3.40 ERA and three wins. He has struck out 36 batters in a team-high 19 appearances.

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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