San Antonio- The Centenary baseball team dropped a pair of games on Saturday, falling in a slugfest to the University of Texas at Dallas Comets by a score of 16-12 and then dropping a 13-4 decision to the nationally-ranked Trinity University Tigers at Trinity University.
The Diamond Gents (5-8) were edged 8-7 by the Comets on Friday afternoon in their first game of the weekend. All three contests, including Saturday's game against fellow Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference member Trinity, were non-conference games.
The Comets, who fell 1-0 to Trinity on Friday night, are now 11-4 and finished 3-0 against Centenary this week after recording a 5-3 win in 11 innings on Tuesday in Shreveport. The Tigers, ranked 17th nationally in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, improved to 8-3. The Comets and Tigers will meet again on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Game one recap: UT-Dallas 16 Centenary 12
The teams combined for a whopping 28 runs, 32 hits, nine walks, 10 strikeouts, four errors, and left 19 on base. The game was tied 7-7 after two innings until the Comets posted five runs in the top of the fourth to take a 12-7 lead and then added two more in the sixth to lead 14-7. Centenary scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to make it 14-9, UT-Dallas scored one in the seventh, and Centenary one in the eighth to make it a 15-10 game. The Comets added their final run in the top of the ninth and the Diamond Gents scored two in the bottom half but came up short.
Senior P Blaine Hardy (Shreveport, La.) started on the hill for Centenary and pitched two innings as she allowed seven runs, six earned, and five hits with three walks and no strikeouts. He faced 14 batters and threw 59 pitches – 29 for strikes. Sophomore P Royce Congi (Houston, Texas) was the next Diamond Gents' pitcher and he struggled as he took the loss as he allowed five runs, all earned, and six hits with no walks and two strikeouts. He faced 12 batters, hitting one, and threw 47 pitches – 29 strikes. Junior P Zachary Malone (Hallsville, Texas) went 1.1 innings and allowed two runs, one earned, and one hit with a walk and hit two batters, and senior P Hank Bennett (Richmond, Texas) worked the final four innings and gave up two runs, both earned, and five hits with a BB and a K. He faced 19 batters and threw 73 pitches (45 strikes).
The Comets used six pitchers and the second, Kasey Kling, picked up the win to move to 3-0 this season. Starter Tobin Oler struggled as he allowed six runs, five earned, and six hits with a walk and a strikeout. Kling went three innings and allowed one unearned run, three hits, a walk, hit two batters and struck out a pair. The final four UT-Dallas pitchers gave up a combined five runs (three earned) on six hits with two BB and three K's. The six Comets' pitchers combined to hit four centenary batters while Congi hit one and Malone nailed a pair.
Senior RF Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) finished with a game-high four hits as he finished 4-5 with two RBI, two doubles, and a stolen base, sophomore 3B Clay Menard (Berwick, La.) went 1-4 with a double, three RBI, two walks, and two runs scored, and sophomore 2B Collin Pitts (Lufkin, Texas) finished 2-4 with a two-run homer and a pair of runs scored.
Freshman 1B Alex Miller (Cypress, Texas) finished 2-5 with two RBI and a run scored, sophomore LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) was 0-3 but had an RBI, two walks, a stolen base and three runs scored, and senior SS Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) went 1-5. Senior C Jake Gonce (Katy, Texas) went 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored, sophomore OF Andrew Landry (Gonzalez, La.) finished 1-4 with a run scored, and freshman DH Walker Wicklund (Shreveport, La.) picked up the first two hits of his career as he went 2-5 with two runs scored.
Seven Comets had two or more hits each led by three apiece from 3B Dylan Bivins and 1B Zach Landry. C Payton Taylor went 2-4 with three RBI and two runs scored, Bivins had a game-high four RBI, and 2B Albert Garza walked three times and was 2-3 with an RBI and four runs scored. The Comets stole five bases – one by LF Lucas Rexin who went 2-6 with an RBI and two runs scored, and two each by RF Luke Finn and CF Jaeger Self.
Game two recap: Trinity 13 Centenary 4
Much like the first game of the day, each team was clicking early on offense as the Diamond Gents and Tigers combined to score five in the first inning and 13 through the first four.
Centenary scored all four of its runs in the first three innings and was shut out after that while the Tigers, who scored nine in their first four trips to the plate, added four in the eighth to seal the win. The Diamond Gents finished with seven hits and four walks, but struck out 10 times, left seven on base, and committed three errors. The Tigers had 12 hits, walked 10 times, struck out seven times, left 11 on base, and made one error. Centenary stole five bases and Trinity swiped four.
Freshman P Logan Schmidt (Pearland, Texas) was the second of six Centenary pitchers in the game and suffered the loss as he allowed two runs, both earned, but did not allow a hit in 1.1 innings with three walks and two strikeouts. He faced nine batters, hitting two, and threw 50 pitches – 24 for strikes. Sophomore P Jordan Hodges (Longview, Texas) started and lasted just 0.2 innings as he gave up three runs, all earned, on one hit with four walks and a strikeout. The final four Centenary pitchers of the game allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits with three BB and four K's.
Luke Pfeiffer started for the Tigers and went 3.2 innings and allowed four runs, all earned, and four hits with four walks and three K's. Jonathan Newman (1-0) got the win in relief as he worked 3.1 innings and did not allow any runs on just two hits with no BB and four K. Trajan Lee pitched the final two innings and allowed one hit with three K's.
Miller and Benoit produced RBI singles in the first to give Centenary an early 2-0 lead but the Tigers scored the game's next four runs to tale a 4-2 lead. Benoit's sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout by Boone tied the game in the third, but Trinity scored three times in the third and twice in the fourth to take a 9-4 lead. The Tigers added four in the eighth to run away with the 13-4 win.
Benoit finished 2-2 with two RBI, Gonce was 2-4, Menard went 1-3 with two BB, Livesay was 10-5 with two runs scored, Boone was 1-4, and Miller finished 1-3 with an RBI, two runs scored, and a BB. Livesay stole three bases and Miller stole a pair.
Centenary now turns its attention to conference play as the Diamond Gents will head back to Texas next weekend to face the University of Dallas Crusaders on Saturday in a DH at Noon and 3 p.m. and then wrap up the series with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Diamond Gents were picked to finish second in the conference this season in the preseason poll released on Jan. 31 based on balloting from the league's head coaches while Dallas was picked seventh.
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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