Jackson, Miss. – The Centenary baseball team will hit the road for the first time this season as the Diamond Gents will play three games this weekend in the Millsaps Baseball Classic beginning with non-conference contest versus the Huntingdon College Hawks on Friday at 11 a.m. at Twenty Field.
Live stats are available for Friday's game at the link below:
Stats: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/millsaps/stats.htm?eventId=679025&streamType=stats
Centenary, currently receiving votes (7) in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA preseason poll, is part of an impressive field this weekend that features four teams currently receiving votes in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll in LaGrange, Rhodes, and Millikin in addition to the Diamond Gents. Host Millsaps, Berry, Huntingdon, and MUW (The W) fill out the field. The Maroon and White will face MUW (The W) on Saturday at 5 p.m. and complete the weekend on Sunday versus LaGrange at Noon. Centenary's games on Saturday and Sunday will be played at Smith-Wills Stadium.
The Diamond Gents (2-2) opened their regular season last weekend at home as they hosted the Gents Classic and won two in a row after starting 0-2. Centenary used 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 weekend tournament.
Centenary, which lost to ETBU 15-0 the day before, also split a pair of games with Willamette University, losing its season opener 3-2 and then winning 6-2 on Sunday. The Diamond Gents are now a remarkable 22-5 in their last 27 home games dating back to the beginning of last season. The 6-2 victory on Saturday over Willamette gave Centenary head coach Mike Diaz his 250th career victory.
Centenary finished with eight hits on Monday and limited ETBU to just four singles. 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. 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. ETBU tied the game in the sixth with an unearned run but sophomore C Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom half of 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.
Primeaux allowed a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth but buckled down and struck out pinch hitter Ben Jones for the first out. LF Ben Lea then grounded out to short, moving the runner up, 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.
The Maroon and White are predicted to finish third in the SCAC this season, marking the second time in a row that they have been picked third. The Diamond Gents were predicted to finish fourth prior to the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign in which they did not get the opportunity to play any conference games.
Centenary returns home after the weekend in Jackson to play host to Alma College for a four-game non-conference series Feb. 20-21. The Scots are a division III school located in Alma, Mich. The teams will play a pair of doubleheaders on Sunday, Feb. 20 (1 and 4 p.m.) and Monday, Feb. 21 (3 and 6 p.m.). Centenary then heads to California for seven games from Feb. 26 to March 6. The Diamond Gents then face the Millsaps Majors in a mid-week non-conference home game on Wednesday, March 9 at 5 p.m.
Millsaps Baseball Classic Tournament Central: https://gomajors.com/news/2022/2/9/majors-ready-to-host-eight-team-millsaps-baseball-classic.aspx
MILLSAPS BASEBALL CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday, Feb. 11 Centenary vs. Huntingdon 11 AM
MUW vs. Rhodes 2:30 PM
Berry vs. Millikin 6 PM (Smith-Wills Stadium)
LaGrange vs. Millsaps 6 PM
Saturday, Feb. 12 Rhodes vs. LaGrange 11 AM
Millikin vs. Millsaps 2:30 PM
Centenary vs. MUW 5 PM (Smith-Wills Stadium)
Huntingdon vs. Berry 6 PM
Sunday, Feb. 13 MUW vs. Berry 11 AM
LaGrange vs. Centenary 12 PM (Smith-Wills Stadium)
Huntingdon vs. Millsaps 2:30 PM
See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests but be advised of current COVID-19 protocols for fans. Updated COVID-19 information is now available via www.GoCentenary.com.
Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests. Please note that all dates and times are subject to change.
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