Shreveport - The No. 19 Centenary baseball team begins a six-game homestand on Friday night as the red-hot Gents face the Schreiner University Mountaineers in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play with first pitch set for 6 p.m. at Shehee Stadium.
Live stats and live video will be available for Friday's game and the entire three-game series at the links below. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday at Noon and 4 p.m.
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2020-21/boxscores/20210326_cf96.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary
The Gents (17-2, 3-0 SCAC) moved up to No. 19 in the country in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Week 5 poll on Tuesday and have won 11-straight games. Hours after learning of its new national ranking, Centenary blasted East Texas Baptist University Tigers by a score of 13-5 on Tuesday night in Marshall, Texas. Centenary is off to its best start in the division III era (2012-present) and the Maroon and White are one game ahead of the pace of the 2017 team that made the NCAA Tournament and was 16-3 after its first 19 games.
Schreiner (7-10, 1-2 SCAC) lost two of three games last weekend at home versus Dallas but rebounded to beat Sul Ross State University, 14-4, at home on Wednesday.
The Gents continued their amazing season-long offensive output on Tuesday night as they have now scored 13 or more runs in four-straight games after doing so in all three games of a road sweep in conference play last weekend over Austin College. Centenary is a superb 26-6 in its last 32 games and have not lost a game since falling 8-5 at Huntingdon back on Feb. 28.
The Gents, who were ranked 25th last week in the national poll, have now scored 10 or more runs in a game 11 times this season, and 11 or more nine times and have done so eight times during their current 11-game winning streak. Centenary collected 16 hits and belted a single-game season-high four home runs on Tuesday and jumped out to a 4-0 lead after its first at-bat. Seven Gents posted multi-hit games led by senior first baseman Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) who went 3-5 with a game-high four RBI, two home runs, and had two runs scored.
Senior right-fielder Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) had a three-hit game which included his 54th career double, to set a division III era (2012-present) program record. Crowder also scored three runs on the night. Junior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) went 2-6 with a three-run home run and scored two runs from the leadoff spot. The top three in the Gents lineup (Hewitt, Crowder, and Ludwick) combined to go 8-15 with seven RBI and seven runs scored. The Gents wasted no time in getting their potent offense going on Tuesday as Hewitt and Crowder opened the game with consecutive singles to put runners at the corners. A wild pitch scored Hewitt and advanced Crowder to third and then Ludwick went deep for a 3-0 lead.
Crowder was named the SCAC Baseball Hitter of the Week on Monday after he hit .417 (5-12) in the three-game sweep last weekend over Austin College with eight RBI, seven runs scored, two doubles, four walks, and four stolen bases. Crowder is hitting .368 on the season with an on-base percentage of .517 and is slugging .647. He has two home runs, 19 RBI, 25 runs scored, and eight stolen bases. Crowder has now earned the honor three times in his superb career. He became the second Gent to earn the honor this season after Ludwick did so in February.
Senior 2B Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas), DH Tyler Welch (Alexandria, La.), senior 3B Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.), and junior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas) each had two hits. Erickson, Welch, and Haggard also drove in a run apiece. Crowder, Welch, and Haggard all collected doubles to go with the four long balls for a total of seven Centenary extra-base hits in the game.
The Gents' offense got things going early and kept the pressure on, but the Centenary pitching staff allowed just four more hits over the final eight innings after allowing back-to-back homers in the bottom of the first.
Senior left-handed pitcher Connor Lee (Sugarland, Texas) made his team-leading eighth start of the season and pitched an inning, allowing two runs on two hits. Senior Andy Purpura (Bozeman, Mont.) relieved Lee and went the next 4.2 innings and picked up the win to move to 2-0 on the season. Purpura was excellent in relief as he allowed just two runs on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Four Gents relievers followed him and allowed just an unearned run and one hit over the final 3.1 innings with one walk and five K's.
Senior Connor Cudd (Lake Charles, La.) got the last out of the sixth inning, senior Joshua Gatewood (League City, Texas) pitched the seventh, freshman Jacob Colby (Kingwood, Texas) pitched the eighth and struck out two, and sophomore Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) finished it off with two strikeouts of his own in a clean ninth inning. Both Lee and Primeaux have been named SCAC Pitcher of the Week so far this season.
The Gents are currently dominating the conference's team and individual statistical categories, as they are number one in the SCAC in team batting average (.352), team ERA (2.81), and fielding percentage (.970). Ludwick leads the conference in wins (4) and has the lowest ERA (1.88). Primeaux is second in ERA (2.16) and five Gents (Erickson, Welch, Ludwick, Crowder, and Robinson) are in the top 16 in the league in batting average. Centenary also ranks first in stolen bases (40) and the Gents' staff has the most strikeouts (134). The Gents have scored the most runs (174) in the conference and allowed the second-fewest runs (66).
Centenary has scored the second-most runs of any team in the country in division III and only one team has more wins. The Gents rank 17th in the nation in batting average, 30th in on-base percentage, 44th in slugging percentage, and are tied for ninth in stolen bases. The Gents' pitching staff ranks 33rd in WHIP and 35th in team ERA.
Erickson and Ludwick are first and second in the conference in hits while Crowder and Robinson rank third and fourth. Crowder has scored the most runs, Ludwick is second, and Bridges and Ludwick are first and second in RBI. Crowder is tied for first in the SCAC in doubles (8), and triples (3). Crowder, Ludwick, and Erickson rank 1-2-3 in total bases and Crowder ranks third in stolen bases while Haggard ranks fifth.
Centenary remains at home next weekend as the University of Dallas Crusaders come to town April 2-3 for a three-game series.
A link to the Gents' complete 2021 schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2020-21/schedule
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