Shreveport - The No. 17 Centenary baseball team made history on Friday as the streaking Gents tied a school record with their 16th-straight win by sweeping the University of Dallas Crusaders in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader by scores of 5-1 and 12-5 at Shehee Stadium.
Centenary and Dallas will meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the third and final game of the series. Live stats and live video will be available for the game at the links below:
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2020-21/boxscores/20210403_dly4.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/portal/centenary
The red-hot Gents (22-2, 8-0 SCAC) tied a record set by the 2017 team which made the NCAA Tournament and went 35-10 overall. The longest winning streak by a Centenary team in the division 1 era (1978-2011) was 10 by the 1990 squad. Centenary, which moved up to No. 17 in the nation in the latest 2021 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Week 6 poll earlier this week, is now 12-0 at home this season and are 15-1 in its last 16 home games dating back to last season. The Gents are now an astounding 31-6 in their last 37 games and have not lost a game since falling 8-5 at Huntingdon back on Feb. 28. Dallas dropped to 5-12 overall and 3-5 in SCAC play
The Gents continued their best start to a season in the division III era (2012-present) and will go for a new program record 17th-straight win on Saturday. Centenary entered Friday's action ranked number one in the conference in team batting (.345), team pitching (3.03), and team fielding (.973) and was the conference leader in runs and hits and with the second-most home runs.
Game one recap
The Gents jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings as sophomore second baseman Cole Collins (Shreveport) doubled in senior third baseman Chris Haggard (Lake Charles, La.), who had singled. Junior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas) followed with an RBI single to score Collins and the Gents plated an unearned run on a single by junior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas).
Dallas got a single run in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by CF Michael Anderson, but Centenary responded with a pair of runs in the sixth inning to extend the lead to the final margin of 5-1. Collins came up big again as he doubled over left fielder Casey White's head to score Haggard and junior 1B Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas).
Senior right-hander Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) picked up his team-high sixth win to remain perfect on the mound this season at 6-0. He allowed just the one run and one hit in seven innings of work. He walked five and struck out eight. Sophomore Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) came on in relief and pitched the final two innings and walked one and had a pair of K's. Conrad Voss (0-4) suffered the loss for Dallas as he allowed five runs, two earned, with a walk and a strikeout in his eight innings.
Collins and left fielder Tyler Welch (Alexandria, La.) each had two hits and Haggard had a hit, two runs scored and a walk. The Crusaders hurt themselves with four errors, hit into a double play, and only mustered one hit, a leadoff single by DH Michael Jaquez in the fifth.
Game two recap:
The Gents buried the Crusaders early, taking an 8-0 lead after three innings. Centenary collected 14 hits in the game with Hewitt leading the way with a 4-5 effort and three runs scored. Hewitt now has a pair of four-hit games this season after doing so on March 20 at Austin College. Senior RF Cody Crowder (Shepherd, Texas) and senior 2B Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas) combined to go 6-8 with four RBI and four runs scored. Crowder and Hewitt each stole two bases.
Ludwick, playing first base, went 2-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Junior C Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) went 2-3 with two runs scored, a walk, and a double. Welch added a pair of RBI with two sacrifice flies. Senior lefty Connor Lee (Sugarland, Texas) made his team-leading 10th start of the season and picked up the win to improve to 5-1. He allowed four runs, all earned, and six hits in 7.2 innings of work with a walk and four strikeouts.
Senior Joshua Gatewood (League City, Texas) and fellow senior Connor Cudd (Lake Charles, La.) combined to pitch the final 1.1 innings and allowed just a run on two hits. Dallas starter Graeme Williams took the loss to fall to 1-2. He lasted just two innings and was roughed up for seven earned runs and eight hits. Her did not record a walk or a strikeout.
Two Dallas relievers, Andrew Magness and Colby Fuller, followed Williams and allowed five runs, all earned, and six hits in six innings with a pair of walks and a strikeout and two hit batters. Third baseman Joseph Vondracheck was 3-5 with an RBI and two runs scored and RF Grady Birmingham was 1-4 with a three-run home run.
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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