Baseball Edges Occidental On Friday, 6-5

Los Angeles - The Centenary baseball team edged the Occidental College Tigers by a score of 6-5 in a non-conference contest on Friday afternoon at Anderson Field.

The Diamond Gents (3-3) evened their record and won their second-straight game after a 10-3 victory over Ozarks last Sunday in Conway, Ark. The Tigers fell to 3-6 on the season and have lost five in a row.

Centenary finished with 10 hits, drew three walks, struck out eight times, and left nine on base while playing error-free baseball. Occidental finished with just five hits, walked six times, struck out nine times, left five on base, and committed two errors. The Diamond Gents have posted at least 10 hits in all six of their games this season which has carried over from last season in which Centenary posted 10+ hits in a game an impressive 22 times.

Sophomore LHP Cody Myers (Friendswood, Texas) picked up the win for Centenary as he went seven innings to get the win and improve to 2-1 as he allowed just two runs, both earned, and three hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. He faced 26 batters, hitting one, and threw 102 pitches (66 strikes). Occidental starter Declan Sklut (1-2) was the losing pitcher as he went 5.1 innings and allowed six runs, four earned, and six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He allowed Miller's home run and faced 27 batters, throwing 98 pitches – 63 for strikes. Three Tigers relievers followed Sklut and pitched well as they combined to allow just four hits and no runs with a walk and three K's.

Occidental scored first as SS Jackson Short's sacrifice bunt scored LF Tyler Kubo, who had walked to open the inning and moved to second on a walk to C Thomas Munch and to third on a flyout. Centenary scored a pair of runs in the top of the third as sophomore LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) had an RBI single and freshman 1B Alex Miller (Cypress, Texas) had an RBI groundout.

Freshman 2B Braeden Morse (Pearland, Texas) came through with a sacrifice bunt to score a run in the fourth and Miller hit a two-run home run in the fifth to score Livesay and give Centenary a 5-1 lead. The homer was Miller's second of the season after going deep for the first time this season on Feb. 17 in a 3-2 loss to Washington University (Mo.). Occidental scored one in the fifth as RF Lou Martineau grounded to short but sophomore CF Collin Pitts (Lufkin, Texas) brought Morse home with a sac fly to give the Maroon and White a 6-2 lead.

The Tigers, though, started a comeback in the eighth. Sophomore P Jordan Hodges (Longview, Texas) came in for Myers and CF Miles Capobianco greeted him rudely by belting a solo home run and then Hodges walked two batters in a row and was pulled for sophomore RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas). He got DH Jeffery Cambra to pop out to second base for the first out, but Kubo delivered an RBI double to make it 6-4 and then Munch grounded out to score 2B Alex Henderson to cut the Centenary lead to 6-5. Broussard, though, struck out 1B Ryan Cacatian looking to end the threat and preserve the Diamond Gent's one-run lead.

Menard batted leadoff for Centenary and was 3-5 with a run scored, Livesay was 2-5 with an RBI and a run scored, sophomore DH Lenny Forth (Flower Mound, Texas) was 2-4 with a run scored, senior SS Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) finished 1-5, senior C Jake Gonce (Katy, Texas) was 1-2, Miller was 1-4 with his team-high three RBI and a run scored, and Pitts was 0-3 with an RBI, a run scored, and a walk.

The Diamond Gents and Tigers will finish their weekend series with a doubleheader on Saturday with games at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Centenary then completes the west coast road trip with a game at Chapman on Sunday at 1 p.m.

See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/schedule

Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests. Please note that all dates and times are subject to change.

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