Jackson, Miss. – The Centenary baseball team opened play in the Millsaps Invitational on Friday afternoon with a 6-5 walk-off victory over the Edgewood College Eagles at Twenty Field.
The Gents (5-1) were down 5-4 entering the ninth inning and scored the tying run on a wild pitch with one out and then a sacrifice fly by junior Peyton Cormane (Pineville, La.) scored redshirt freshman Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) with the winning run.
Junior left-hander Connor Lee (Sugar Land, Texas) started for the Gents and went 8.1 innings and allowed seven hits and five runs (four earned) with two walks and seven strikeouts. Junior Andy Purpura (Bozeman, Mont.) picked up the win in relief to improve to 2-0. Eric Nelson (0-1) took the loss for the Eagles as he allowed two runs (one earned) and three hits in two thirds of an inning with no walks and no strikeouts.
The Gents collected 10 hits while Edgewood (0-1) picked up seven and made four errors and used four pitchers in its season opener. Junior third baseman Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.) had two hits, two runs, two RBI and his first home run of the season. Bridges also had two hits, a run scored, and an RBI and junior Connor Cudd (Lake Charles, La.) also had two hits.
Edgewood went ahead 2-0 after an inning on a sacrifice fly and an RBI single and then Centenary cut the Eagles' lead in half on an RBI single by Bridges. Each team scored a run in the fifth inning and the Edgewood lead stood until Haggard's one out two-run home run gave the Gents a 4-3 lead.
Centenary faces Edgewood again on Saturday at Noon and then wraps up play versus the Eureka College Red Devils of Eureka, Il. at 3:30 p.m. Live stats and live video will be available for both of Saturday's games at: www.gomajors.com.
The Gents will stay on the road following this weekend's trip to Mississippi as Centenary heads west to face Cal Lutheran (Feb. 26), Occidental (Feb. 28), Whittier College twice on Feb. 29, and the University of La Verne (March 1) all in the Los Angeles area.
Centenary faces Louisiana College again in a makeup game on Monday, March 9 in Pineville (game originally scheduled for Feb. 14). The Gents then open SCAC play at home March -14 against Trinity for a three-game series.
A link to the complete 2020 schedule can be found here: www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2019-20/schedule
Live stats and live video are available for all home games and admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic events. #GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
