Ladies Silence Arlington Baptist In Saturday Sweep

Shreveport - The Centenary softball team recorded a non-conference doubleheader sweep of the Arlington Baptist University Patriots by scores of 7-1 in game one and 10-2 in five innings in game two on Saturday at the Centenary Softball Complex.

The Ladies (4-6) extended their winning streak to four after earning a DH sweep at Hendrix College last Saturday. The Patriots fell to 3-19 with Saturday's two losses.

Game one recap: Centenary 7 Arlington Baptist 1

The Ladies jumped ahead in the bottom of the second with three runs and added a single run in the third, two more in the fourth, and one final run in the sixth. The Patriots scored their lone run in the sixth. Centenary finished with 11 hits, three walks, and two stolen bases while Arlington Baptist had just three hits, did not draw a walk, and stole two bases. The Ladies made three errors, left nine on base, but only struck out one time. The Patriots committed two errors, struck out four times, and left four on base.

Junior P Anna Scarbrock (Alexandria, La.) started and picked up the win as she allowed just one hit and no walks with three strikeouts. She faced 19 batters and threw 61 pitches – 41 for strikes. Junior Emma Shepherd (Athens, La.) pitched the final two innings and allowed just one earned run on three hits with no BB and one K. Shepherd faced eight batters and threw 29 pitches (19 strikes).

Sophia Cordova started and suffered the loss for the Patriots as she lasted just 2.1 innings and allowed four runs, all earned, on six hits with no BB and one K. She threw 39 pitches (26 strikes) and faced 14 batters, hitting one. Kyndal Murphy relieved her and allowed three earned runs and five hits in three innings with two BB and no K. Madeline Lee faced three batters and walked one as she was the third and final pitcher for the Patriots.

Sophomore C Jaeden Thrasher (Forney, Texas) had three hits for the Ladies and senior RF Mackenzie Cox (Alexandria, La.) and sophomore SS Brooke Sandefur (Denham Springs, La.) each had two.

Freshman LF Janae Bland (Livingston, Texas) singled to center with two outs in the second to start a rally. Senior CF Mallory Stout (Trinity, Texas) was hit by a pitch to move Bland into scoring position. Sandefur then singled through the right side to score Bland and Stout raced home on an error by Arlington Baptist RF Sophia Cavazos as Sandefur went to second. Cox then reached on an infield single and Sandefur advanced to third. Cox then stole second base and Sandefur scored on the throw to put the Ladies up 3-0. Cordova got sophomore 2B Catherine Stokes (Natchitoches, La.) to ground out to end the inning but the Ladies' damage was done and all with two outs.

Thrasher doubled to lead off the third inning sophomore 3B Morgan Dawson (Natchitoches, La.) grounded out to second to move Thrasher to third. Senior 1B Isabelle Dominguez (Newark, Calif.) then singled to left to make it 4-0. Thrasher brought Sandefur home on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and Dawson's infield single scored Cox.

Arlington Baptist CF Amber Aguilar delivered an RBI single in the top of the sixth and Thrasher's RBI single scored Cox in the bottom of the sixth to cap the scoring. The Patriots left two runners on in each of the second, fifth, and sixth innings, as Scarbrock and Shepherd worked out of trouble and limited the visitors to just one run.

Cox finished 2-3 with two runs scored, a walk, and two stolen bases, Thrasher was 3-3 with two RBI and a run scored, Dawson was 1-4 with an RBI, Bland went 1-4 with a run scored, and Stokes was 1-4. Sandefur finished 2-3 with an RBI and two runs, and Dominguez went 1-3 with an RBI and a BB.

Game two recap: Centenary 10 Arlington Baptist 2 (five innings)

The Patriots scored once in their first at-bat as 3B Hannah Pacheco doubled with two outs to score 1B Elizabeth Werner. The Ladies, however, answered immediately with two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead.

Cox drew a leadoff walk and stole second base and Stokes walked. The Ladies then executed a double steal and Cox scored on a throwing error. Thrasher followed with a sacrifice fly to score Stokes. In the second inning, Centenary extended its lead to 5-1 with three more runs. Cox had a two-RBI double and Thrasher delivered another sac fly to score Stout.

Arlington Baptist 2B Kynley Menchaca brought home a run in the top of the third with an RBI single, but Camie Welborn struck out to leave the bases loaded.

The Ladies put an exclamation point on the win with five runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 10-2. Stokes had an RBI single and another run scored on the throw, Thrasher had a two-RBI double, and Shepherd delivered an RBI single to score Thrasher.

Sophomore P Alexis Roach (Pineville, La.) started in the circle in game two and received a no-decision as she worked 2.1 innings and allowed two runs, both earned, on just one hit with five BB and one K. She faced 14 batters and threw 61 pitches – 25 for strikes. Sophomore P Riley Myers (Shreveport, La.) came on in relief of Roach and picked up the victory as she went 2.2 innings and yielded just three hits with no runs and no BB with a pair of K's. Myers faced 11 batters, hit one, and threw 44 pitches (30 strikes).

Arlington Baptist starter Ariana Cabrera, the first of three pitchers in game two, suffered the loss as she lasted only an inning and was tagged for five runs, four earned, and four hits with no K's and three BB. Welborn was the second pitcher for the Patriots and allowed five runs, all earned, and four hits with no K's and a pair of walks.

Thrasher finished off a spectacular day at the plate as she went 1-4 with four RBI, a stolen base, and a run scored, Cox went 2-2 with two RBI, two runs scored, two stolen bases, and a walk, and Stout was 2-3 with two runs scored and a stolen base. Stokes finished 1-2 with two runs scored, an RBI, a walk, and a stolen base, and Shepherd was 1-3 with an RBI. Sophomore SS River Boultinghouse (Saint Gabriel, La.) was 2-2 with two runs scored and a walk, and freshman LF Taylor Good (Flower Mound, Texas) was 1-3 with a run scored.

Centenary is back in action at home on Sunday as the Ladies will face the Concordia University Tornados in a non-conference DH at Noon and 2 p.m. Concordia is 5-3 this season and split a pair with Jarvis Christian on Friday, winning game two by a score of 13-2.

The Ladies are in the midst of their longest homestand of the season as they are home again next weekend for a three-game set against the Millsaps College Majors and then open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play at home against the University of Dallas on March 16-17.

See the complete Ladies' season schedule here:  https://centenary.prestosports.com/sports/sball/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.

#GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity