No. 2 Seed Diamond Gents Face Southwestern In SCAC Tournament On Friday

Cleburne, Texas - The No. 2 seed Centenary baseball team will face the No. 3 seed Southwestern University Pirates in the opening round of the 2024 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at La Moderna Field.

Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:

Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/boxscores/20240503_mdsc.xml

Video: https://www.meridix.com/channel/?liveid=sportsgram6#/

The double elimination tournament begins at 1 p.m. on Friday as No. 1 seed Trinity University (30-10, 16-5 SCAC) faces No. 4 seed Texas Lutheran (23-15, 12-9 SCAC). All games will be live streamed through the league's partnership with Sportsgram. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at Noon.

Trinity, currently ranked ninth in the country in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll and 10^th in the American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Div. III Coaches Poll, won the regular-season title and is the defending tournament champion.

The tournament opener is a rematch of last year's championship round when Trinity defeated TLU, 13-6, to take home the conference crown. Combined, the two schools have won four of the last five SCAC baseball tournament titles with Trinity taking home the hardware in 2019 and 2023 and Texas Lutheran in 2018 and 2021. The Diamond Gents' most recent title was in 2022 while Southwestern has yet to win a SCAC title. Centenary went 1-2 in Cleburne last season, falling 5-2 to Trinity in its opening game, beating Southwestern 5-4 in an elimination game, and losing 12-6 to TLU.

The Diamond Gents (19-17, 13-7 SCAC) lost two of three games at home last weekend to Trinity to wrap up the regular season as they lost the series opener by a score of 6-3 and then split a doubleheader, winning in run-rule fashion 14-3 in game one and falling 5-1 in game two. Centenary was picked to finish second in the preseason poll and finished second, its best finish since winning the regular-season title in 2018. The Diamond Gents have finished first, second, or third in every season except one (fourth – 2021) since joining the SCAC in 2013.

The Diamond Gents are back in the SCAC Tournament for the 11th time as they have appeared in every edition since joining the conference prior to the 2013 season. Centenary has enjoyed incredible success in the event, winning titles in 2022 and in 2017 and have finished as runner-up three times (2013, 2015, 2018). The Diamond Gents have now won 10 or more regular season conference games in every season since joining the SCAC (2013-present) and have won 13 or more eight times. The Diamond Gents need just one more win to record their ninth 20-plus win season since 2013. 

The Diamond Gents enter the championship as one of the nation's top offensive teams as they rank 90th in the country in batting average (.312) and boast a .406 on-base percentage and are slugging .419 with 18 home runs. Centenary has scored 257 runs, averaging 7.2 runs per game, and has 524 total baes, 90 extra-base hits, 149 walks, 65 HBP, and 65 stolen bases. The Diamond Gents have scored 10+ runs in a game 14 times this season and have posted at least 10 hits in a game in 23 of 36 games this season. Their 390 hits are tied for 71^st nationally. Centenary has a 5.59 ERA with three complete games and three saves.

Eight Centenary players are hitting .300 or better this season led by senior SS Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) who is fifth in the conference with a .381 batting average and freshman 1B Alex Miller (Cypress, Texas) ranks eighth with a .357 average. Sophomore LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) is just behind Miller at .356 and freshman DH Walker Wicklund (Shreveport, La.) is hitting .349.

Senior RF Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) is hitting .321, sophomore CF Collin Pitts (Lufkin, Texas) is batting .318, sophomore 3B Clay Menard (Berwick, La.) is at .315 and senior C Jake Gonce (Katy, Texas) is batting .314.

Boone, Miller, and Livesay are all ranked in the top 10 in the conference in hits and Livesay leads in runs scored while Menard and Miller are in the top 10, Miller ranks second in RBI and Benoit is in the top 10 in RBI. Boone, Livesay, and Menard are all in the top 10 in on-base percentage and Livesay and Miller are ranked in the top 10 in slugging percentage. Benoit and Livesay are ranked first and second in the league in doubles with 15 and 11 respectively, and Pitts' three triples are tied for fourth.

Boone, a likely candidate for First-Team All-SCAC honors, has a team-best 53 hits and has 25 RBI, 30 runs scored, five doubles, a home run, a triple, nine stolen bases, and has only struck out 10 times in 139 at-bats while drawing 13 walks. Livesay, also a safe bet for First-Team honors, is second on the team in hits (52) and has 43 runs scored, 27 RBI, a team-high 17 stolen bases in 20 attempts, and is second on the team in home runs (five) along with a triple and his 11 doubles. He walked 26 times in a team-high 146 at-bats compared to just 27 strikeouts. He has 13 multi-hit performances with a four-hit game and four 3-hit games. named the SCAC Hitter of the Week on April 1

Miller excelled in his rookie season and is a top candidate for Freshman of the Year as he belted a team-high six home runs and drove in a team-high 41 runs and totaled 36 runs scored, eight doubles, a triple, and seven stolen bases in eight attempts. Miller walked 16 times in 140 at-bats while only striking out nine times and recorded 18 multi-hit games this season.

Miller, named SCAC Hitter of the Week on Feb. 27, was also named the Div. III Rookie of The Month by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) on Feb. 28 after he batted .462 (12-for-26) with nine runs, eight RBI, five walks, three homers, and two doubles in the month of February. He posted four multi-hit games over the seven he played in, headlined by a 3-for-5 day with two doubles, a run scored, and RBI in a 13-3 win at Occidental on Feb. 24. Miller went 5-for-13 with four runs, four RBI, and two homers in the Gents' three-game sweep of Occidental.

Pitts was named the SCAC Hitter of the Week on April 8 and has 42 hits this season, 25 runs scored, 25 RBI, six doubles, three triples, a home run, and a stolen base. Benoit has 44 hits, 26 runs scored, three home runs, a triple, 29 RBI, six stolen bases and his 15 doubles. Menard has 39 hits, 35 runs scored, four doubles, a triple, 24 RBI, 12 stolen bases, and an impressive 33 BB in 124 at-bats compared to just 17 strikeouts as he is the team leader in walks.

Gonce has 38 hits, 24 runs scored, 17 RBI, three doubles, a homer, and four stolen bases while Wicklund, another impressive rookie, has 22 hits, 10 runs scored, 12 RBI, nine BB, three doubles, a home run, three stolen bases, and only six strikeouts in 63 at-bats.

Sophomore LHP Cody Myers (Friendswood, Texas) has established himself as the team's ace and one of the league's and country's top pitchers. Myers (8-3) is 27th nationally in ERA (1.89) with three complete games in 12 appearances and 10 games started. In 76.0 IP, Myers has allowed just 20 runs (16 earned) and 60 hits with 23 walks and 79 strikeouts. Myers, tied for sixth in the country in wins, had an ERA under 1.00 for the majority of the season. He ranks third in the conference in ERA, second in IP and third in K's.

Sophomore RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas) has all three of Centenary's saves and sports a 4.56 ERA in 18 appearances while senior P Blaine Hardy (Shreveport, La.) is 4-0 with a 5.07 ERA in 12 appearances and nine starts. Sophomore RHP Aidan Reichek (Bellaire, Texas), junior LHP Tyler Herrera (Spring, Texas), and junior P Zachary Malone (Hallsville, Texas) have all made 13 or more appearances this season.

Centenary head coach Mike Diaz moved into third-place all-time in conference history with 144 SCAC regular-season wins with a win on April 20 against TLU in Seguin, Texas, passing Jim Mallon of Southwestern. Diaz, now in his 14^th season at the helm, became the all-time winningest coach in program history last season with his 292nd win on April 16, 2023 at home versus Schreiner University and is now 314-226-1, having passed former HC Ed McCann (1999-2010) for the all-time wins mark.

A Peek at the Pirates:

Southwestern is hitting .272 as a team with 29 home runs. The Pirates have a 5.80 ERA with no complete games but have 11 saves.

Top Hitters: Senior OF Maxwell Mims and junior C James Vaquero are a formidable offensive duo for the Pirates as they have combined for 114 hits, 78 RBI, 76 runs scored, and 31 extra-base hits which includes 11 homers.

Top Pitchers: Sophomore Andrew Hardin has made 12 appearances and saved a team-leading four games while junior Greg Ferguson leads in ERA (4.02) in 10 appearances and eight starts and junior Carson Brown is the team leader in wins with five.

Final Word: Centenary aims to defeat Southwestern for a fourth time in four tries on Friday after the Maroon and White swept the Pirates in a three-game series at home last month. The winner of Friday's game will face the Trinity-TLU winner on Saturday at Noon. 

Championship Central: https://scacsports.com/tournament/spring/baseball/24championships/index

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

#GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity