Pineville, La. - The No. 19 Centenary baseball team extended its winning streak to four games on Wednesday night as the Gents defeated the Louisiana College Wildcats 11-8 in a non-conference game at Billy Allgood Field at Legacy Stadium.
The Gents, playing their final non-conference game of the regular season, improved to 28-5 on the season and defeated Louisiana College for the second time this season after opening the season with a 6-1 win over the Wildcats at home on Feb. 9. The Wildcats dropped to 20-10 on the season with Wednesday's loss. Centenary has now won 37 of its last 46 games overall since the start of last season.
The Maroon and White, ranked 19th in this week's D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll and ranked for the sixth week in a row, jumped out early as they scored five in the top of the first inning. The Wildcats responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning and then the teams combined to go scoreless over the next four innings until Louisiana College scored three in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 5-5.
The tie game, though, did not last long as Centenary scored six in the top of the seventh to open up an 11-5 lead. The Wildcats score the game's final three runs to get within three, but the Centenary pitching staff closed the door and seal the win. The Gents banged out 14 hits and drew five walks while only striking out three times. They also had three extra-base hits, stole a base, and hit two sacrifice flies.
Centenary loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first against Louisiana College starter Brooks Southall and senior C Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas) brought home the first run with an RBI groundout to short. Senior DH Tyler Welch (Alexandria, La.) drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly and then junior C Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) was hit by a pitch to put two on with two outs. Senior 3B Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.) made sure Southall would not escape the inning only allowing two runs as he blasted a three-run home run to make it 5-0.
Haggard is now 5-8 at the plate over his last two games with four RBI and two runs scored. He went 3-4 with the three big RBI on the homer Wednesday and scored a pair of runs. He now has nine multi-hit games this season and four homers, tied for tops on the team.
The Wildcats' Beau Freeman tied the game with a three-run homer in the sixth. The Gents then tagged two LC relievers for six runs on seven hits in the top of the seventh to take control of the game. Erickson and Welch delivered back to back RBI singles and Bridges ripped a two-run double to make it 9-5. Senior LF John Beaudion (Houston, Texas) drove in Bridges with a sac fly and junior SS Brady Robinson (Jasksonville, Texas) capped the scoring with an RBI single up the middle to bring Haggard home and make it an 11-5 game.
Haggard led the way with three hits and Erickson, Robinson, senior 1B Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) and senior RF Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) each had two hits. Junior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) went 1-3 with two runs scored, two walks, and a stolen base from the leadoff spot. The middle of the lineup was lethal on Wednesday as Erickson, Welch, Bridges and Haggard combined to go 7-16 with nine RBI and six runs scored.
Freshman southpaw Jacob Colby (Kingwood, Texas) started and lasted just a third of an inning as he allowed two runs, both earned, and three hits with a walk and a strikeout and allowed a homer. Senior Connor Cudd (Lake Charles, La.) relieved the rookie and went the next 4.2 innings and allowed three earned runs and four hits with a walk and three K's. Senior right-hander Andy Purpura (Bozeman, Mont.) became the third pitcher of the night for the Gents and picked up the win to remain undefeated (4-0) as he pitched 2.1 innings and allowed three earned runs and four hits with a walk and two K's.
Sophomore Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) pitched the final 1.2 innings and did not allow a run on just two hits with three strikeouts to notch his ninth save of the season. Primeaux is now tied for most saves in the country in all of division III and leads the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
The Wildcats used a whopping 10 pitchers on Wednesday with Austin Thiels, the seventh pitcher out of the night, was charged with the loss to fall to 0-1.
Centenary now turns its attention back to conference play as the Gents travels to San Antonio, Texas this weekend for a critical three-game conference series against Trinity on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25. The Gents and Tigers will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. with a single game scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Gents then close the regular season with another key three-game series at home versus Texas Lutheran, April 30-May 1.
The Gents' quest for a regular-season conference title is right in front of them over the final two weekends as Trinity (23-3, 10-1 SCAC) and Texas Lutheran (19-10, 10-2 SCAC) are currently first and second in the conference standings while Centenary is third. Centenary will hold its annual Senior Day ceremony following the second game of its doubleheader on Saturday, May 1. The games are scheduled for Noon and 3 p.m. following a 6 p.m. series opener the night before, Friday, April 30.
Live stats and live video are available for all home contests.
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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