Lawrenceville, Ga. – The Centenary baseball team was predicted to finish fourth in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference this season by the league's coaches based on balloting in the annual preseason coaches' poll.
Trinity was picked to win the conference this season and received 60 points and six first-place votes. Texas Lutheran was picked second and Southwestern was chosen to finish third and received two first-place votes. The Gents received 41 total points.
The Gents, led by 10th-year head coach Mike Diaz, finished 18-23-1 last season including a 10-8 mark in SCAC play. The Gents qualified for the SCAC conference tournament for the seventh-consecutive season. Diaz enters his 16th with the program as he served as associate head coach from 2005-2010. He is a stellar 210-161-1 and 81-30 in SCAC play and guided the Gents to SCAC regular season championships in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018. In 2017, the Gents made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history, becoming only the third Centenary athletics team (and the first in more than a decade) to reach NCAA postseason play.
Centenary will begin the season on Friday, Feb. 7 with a non-conference game versus the East Texas Baptist University Tigers at 7 p.m. in Marshall, Texas. The Gents then welcome ETBU to Shehee Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 8 for a doubleheader with games at 1 and 4 p.m. Centenary will face Louisiana College at home in another non-conference doubleheader on Feb. 15 at 2 and 5 p.m. and then are on the road for eight games until returning home to play host to Trinity for a three-game series (Feb. 13-14) to open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.
The Gents will play 40 regular-season games, 15 at home and 25 road/neutral contests. Centenary is away from home for their final seven games of the year with a pair of SCAC series' versus University of Dallas and Texas Lutheran and a single game at Louisiana College. The Maroon and White will play eight of 12 games at home from March 27 to April 14.
"Year in and year out we have one of the toughest schedules in the nation and this years' schedule is no exception," said Diaz.
"We have a schedule that will prepare us for our goals of winning a conference championship and reaching post season play. We have a good mix of older guys with championship experience and some younger guys who have the talent and hunger to help us out this year to reach our goals. We are looking forward to getting under way."
A link to the complete 2020 schedule can be found here: www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2019-20/schedule
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