Softball Team To Face Southwestern at Home in Key Weekend Series

Shreveport - The Centenary softball team, fresh off a road sweep in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play last weekend over Dallas, will face the Southwestern Pirates in a three-game weekend conference series beginning on Friday with a doubleheader at 2 and 4 p.m. at the Centenary Softball Complex.

The teams will wrap up the series with a single game on Saturday at Noon. Live stats and live video will be available for all three games of the series at the links below:

Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2020-21/boxscores/20210402_gr8p.xml

Video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary

The Ladies (12-11, 5-3 SCAC) had a fantastic weekend in Irving, Texas last weekend, sweeping a DH on Saturday over the Crusaders, winning 8-0 in five innings in game one and then 7-2 in game two. The Maroon and White finished off the three-game sweep with a 4-1 win on Sunday. Centenary has now won five of its last six games against Dallas and also recorded its first series sweep in conference play since sweeping the Crusaders on the road in the 2019 season. Southwestern enters Friday's DH at 7-11 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Ladies are currently third in the conference standings with the Pirates just behind them in fourth.

Centenary collected 13 hits on Sunday and finished with an impressive 31 in the three-game series. Senior catcher Erin Lewis (Leesville, La.) put an exclamation point on a superb weekend as she went 3-3 with three RBI and two doubles. Lewis was a sensational 8-9 at the plate for the series with five RBI, a pair of doubles, a homer, two runs scored, and a stolen base. Lewis also drew two walks to post a .900 on-base percentage and slugged 1.444 for the series. She was appropriately named the SCAC Softball Hitter of the Week on Monday.

Freshman Cambry Bates (Readhimer, La.) continued her productive weekend at the plate on Sunday as she went 2-4 with a double and a run scored, after going 3-6 with two homers, three runs scored, a walk, and four RBI in Saturday's DH sweep. Sophomore third baseman Britlyn Garrett (Stonewall. La.) went 2-3 with two runs scored on Sunday, sophomore center fielder Mallory Stout (Trinity, Texas) went 2-3 with an RBI, and freshman first baseman Isabelle Dominguez (Newark, Calif.) went 2-3 with a run scored.

Junior Kirstyn Gomez (Deer Park, Texas) started Sunday's game and went four innings to pick up the win and move to 2-2 on the season, allowing just one earned run and four hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Junior Ashley Hunter (Benton, La.) came on in relief of Gomez and pitched two innings and recorded a pair of strikeouts. Freshman Hailee Leger (Belle Chasse, La.) pitched the seventh and picked up her team-high fourth save of the season as she struck out one. Leger now leads the conference and the country in saves and ranks second in the league with a 1.64 ERA and 62 K's and also has four complete games. Hunter ranks fifth in the SCAC in strike outs (21) and is 4-2 with a 3.23 ERA. Leger started in the circle in game one and picked up the win to improve to 5-6 on the season as she went five innings and allowed no runs and just one hit with a walk and five strikeouts.

In Saturday's DH sweep, the Ladies stole six bases in game two alone led by two from sophomore Kaylea Patridge (Las Vegas, Nev.) and swiped seven on the day along with six extra-base hits highlighted by four home runs. Centenary drew six walks in the two games and only struck out four times while collecting 18 hits. Centenary pitching held the Crusaders to just two runs and seven hits, allowed just two walks, and recorded 10 K's.

Patridge had a superb game as she went 3-4 with a pair of RBI singles, a steal of home, and then utilized her speed as she hit an inside the park home run in the third inning to extend the Centenary lead to 3-0, her first-career home run. freshman right fielder Mackenzie Cox (Alexandria, La.) continued her impressive rookie campaign last weekend as she went 3-11 in the series with two RBI, two runs scored, and a walk. Cox is second on the team with a .313 average and leads the team with a .403 on-base percentage and is slugging .343. She has posted five multi-hit games, has 21 hits on the season with nine runs scored and has stolen 11 bases, second on the team to Patridge's 15.

The Ladies have swiped an impressive 50 bases this season and rank second in the league in team pitching with an overall ERA of 2.69 and lead in strikeouts with 105. The Ladies are also third in fielding with an overall team fielding percentage of .953. Patridge and Cox currently rank second and third in the conference in stolen bases, Garrett leads the league with three triples, and Lewis and Bates are tied for second in the SCAC with three home runs apiece.

A link to the Ladies' complete schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2020-21/schedule

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