Shreveport – The Centenary baseball team utilized dominant pitching to silence one of the nation's top offensive teams on Monday as the Diamond Gents defeated the East Texas Baptist University Tigers 2-1 in the final game of the 2022 Gents Classic at Shehee Stadium.
The Diamond Gents (2-2) started the weekend with a pair of losses but rebounded nicely, defeating Willamette University 6-2 on Sunday evening and then picking up the win over the Tigers (2-2) and in the process gained revenge from a 15-0 loss to ETBU on Sunday.
Centenary finished with eight hits on Monday and limited ETBU to just four singles. The Diamond Gents committed two errors, struck out eight times, and left 12 men on base, but excellent pitching carried them to the win. The Tigers left six on base and struck out nine times.
Junior RHP Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) picked up his first win of the season for the Gents as he pitched the final three innings and allowed just a hit with one walk and five strikeouts. Junior LHP Collier Cloinger (Bossier City, La.) started and went two innings. He did not allow a run or a hit and walked one with a pair of strikeouts. Junior RHP Peyton Thibodeaux (Lake Arthur, La.) relived Cloinger and pitched four superb innings in his season debut, allowing just three hits and an unearned run with no walks and a pair of K's.
Tyler Schwenn started on the mound for the Tigers and went four innings, allowing no runs on two hits with four walks and four K's. Rece Gustafson relived Schwenn and pitched the next three innings as he allowed one earned run and four hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Braden Fowler (0-1) suffered the loss as he pitched 2/3 of an inning and walked one and allowed a hit and an earned run. Johnny Follett was the fourth and final pitcher of the game for the Tigers as he pitched 1/3 of an inning and yielded one hit with a walk and a strikeout.
Primeaux threw 40 pitches, 28 for strikes, and faced 11 batters and was sharp in his second appearance of the season. Cloinger, who pitched 1.2 innings on Saturday against ETBU, threw 33 pitches (20 strikes) and faced eight batters. Thibodeaux, in his longest outing of his career, faced 15 batters and threw 36 total pitches with 21 strikes.
Senior 1B Preston Ludwick (Pflugerville, Texas) put the Diamond Gents ahead 1-0 with an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to bring home senior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) who had reached on a bunt single to start the inning. The Tigers tied the game in the sixth with an unearned run as DH Brett Wagner and RF Will Kelley delivered back-to-back singles with two outs and then Wagner stole third and an errant throw by sophomore C Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) allowed Wagner to score and tie the game. Thibodeaux, though, got Brock Calvillo to foul out to end the inning.
Fowler relived Gustafson in the bottom of the eighth and immediately ran into trouble as he plunked Benoit to lead off the inning and then senior DH Tyler Welch (Pineville, La.) ripped a clutch single to right field to move Benoit to third. Welch was down in the count early 0-2 but fouled off a pair of pitches and stayed alive and delivered the much-needed hit. Senior 2B Tyler Erickson (Houston, Texas) then grounded into a hard-hit double play to short but Benoit came home with the go-ahead run.
Wagner walked to lead off the top of the ninth but Primeaux buckled down and struck out pinch hitter Ben Jones for the first out. LF Ben Lea then grounded out to short, moving Wagner to second base, but Primeaux then retired C Jase Jones on an easy pop out to Ludwick to secure the one-run win.
Ludwick, Welch and senior SS Brady Robinson (Jacksonville, Texas each collected two hits to pace the Diamond Gents' offense and senior 3B Ben Bridges (Beckville, Texas) and fellow senior Luke Royle (Dodge City, Kan.) each walked twice. Wagner had two of ETBU's four hits.
The Diamond Gents, who are currently receiving votes (7) in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA preseason poll are now a remarkable 22-5 in their last 27 home games dating back to the beginning of last season.
Centenary will hit the road this weekend to play in the Millsaps Baseball Classic in Jackson, Miss. The impressive field features the Diamond Gents, host Millsaps, Berry, Huntingdon, LaGrange, Rhodes, Millikin, and MUW (The W). Centenary is one of four teams currently receiving votes in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA preseason poll and will face Huntingdon, LaGrange, and MUW (The W) in the event.
See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/schedule
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