Shreveport – The Centenary baseball team defeated the Willamette University Bearcats 6-2 on Sunday night on day two of the Gents Classic in a non-conference contest at a chilly Shehee Stadium to give head coach Mike Diaz his 250th career victory.
The Diamond Gents (1-2) recorded their first win of the season in comeback fashion after falling behind the Bearcats (2-2) early. Centenary rebounded nicely from a disappointing 15-0 loss to the East Texas Baptist University Tigers earlier in the day. Centenary finished with 11 hits and held the Bearcats to just three.
Centenary fell behind 2-0 in the top of the third but scored one in the bottom half and then tied the game in the fourth and scored four runs over their final three at-bats to secure the milestone win. Willamette struck out 12 times, left six men on base, and committed two errors while drawing nine walks. Centenary went down on strikes 14 times, drew two walks, committed one error and left eight on base.
Senior Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) started for the Gents and pitched five innings, allowing just two earned runs on two hits with five strikeouts but walked six. He threw 88 pitches, 49 for strikes, and faced 21 batters. Freshman Tyler Herrera (Spring, Texas) relived Ludwick and earned his first collegiate victory as he was superb, tossing three scoreless innings. He allowed just a single hit, three walks, and struck out six. He faced 13 batters and threw 78 pitches, 48 for strikes. Senior Luke Royle (Dodge City, Kan.) pitched the final inning and struck out one. He did not allow a run or hit and did not walk a batter. He threw 14 pitches and was sharp as 10 were for strikes, setting down all three batters he faced in order with ease.
Justin Miller started for Willamette and took the loss to fall to 0-1 as he allowed three runs, all earned, and seven hits in his six innings of work. He was tough, though, on the Diamond Gents' lineup all evening as he struck out 12 and did not walk a batter. He threw 89 pitches with 71 for strikes, faced 28 total batters and hit two men. Logan Haslam came in for Miller and went 2/3 of an inning and allowed two runs, both earned, on three hits with a walk. He faced six batters and threw 16 pitches (9 strikes). Brady Joyner was the third and final pitcher of the night for the Bearcats as he pitched 1.1 innings and allowed one earned run on one hit with a walk and a pair of strikeouts. He threw 18 pitches with 11 going for strikes and faced five batters.
Willamette took the 2-0 lead in the top of the third on a pair of RBI singles by RF Samuel Daly and DH Jonny Suchor. The Diamond Gents scored an unearned run in the third to make it 2-1 and then tied the game in the fourth on a fielder's choice RBI groundout by 2B Cole Collins (Shreveport, La.).
Freshman RF Cade LaBruyere (Iowa, La.) delivered a go-ahead RBI single with two outs to score Royle in the bottom of the sixth for a 3-2 Centenary lead. Royle had tripled with one out and trotted home on LaBruyere's single to right-center. Sophomore 1B Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) extended Centenary's lead to 4-2 with an RBI single in the seventh inning and Royle followed one out later with one of his own for a 5-2 lead. Senior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas) doubled home senior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) in the eighth inning to make it 6-2 and pad the Centenary lead.
Benoit, Royle, and Ludwick each had two hits and five other Gents had one. Daly and Suchor had two of the Bearcats' three hits while 3B Jeff Hoffman had the other. Daly stole three bases, SS Ethan Fischel stole one, and Hewitt and Collins each stole a base for Centenary.
Centenary will wrap up the weekend tournament on Monday as the Maroon and White face East Texas Baptist University (2-1) at 4 p.m.
See the complete Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/schedule
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