Orange, Calif. - The Centenary baseball team had its season-high four-game winning streak snapped on Sunday afternoon as the Diamond Gents were edged 8-7 by the Chapman University Panthers in a non-conference contest held at Hart Park.
The Diamond Gents (5-4) finished 3-1 on their trip to the West Coast after recording a three-game series sweep of the Occidental College Tigers. Centenary finished the series on Saturday with a pair of convincing wins in a doubleheader by scores of 14-5 in game one and 13-3 in game two. The Diamond Gents won the series opener on Friday, 6-5. Chapman improved to 5-2 on the season.
Junior P Zachary Malone (Hallsville, Texas) started on the mound for Centenary and went four innings as he pitched well, allowing just two hits with two strikeouts. Malone received a no-decision as he kept Chapman off the scoreboard, did not walk a batter, and threw 39 pitches (26 strikes) and faced 13 batters. Sophomore RHP Aidan Reichek (Bellaire, Texas) came in for Malone and went 1-2 innings and allowed three runs, all earned, and two hits with two BB and two K's.
Sophomore RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas) was the third Centenary pitcher of the game and suffered the loss to fall to 0-1 this season as he allowed five runs, three earned, and four hits with one BB and one K and gave up two home runs. He faced nine batters and threw 30 pitches – 18 for strikes. Sophomore P Jordan Hodges (Longview, Texas) was the fourth and final pitcher of the game for the Maroon and White as he went 1.1 innings and yielded no runs and no walks with one hit and struck out a pair. He faced five batters and threw 19 pitches (14 strikes).
The Panthers used six pitchers and the third, Tyler Buxton, picked up the win and Henry Chabot, the final pitcher of the day recorded his third save. Buxton (1-0) pitched an inning and allowed two runs, both earned, on one hit with a walk and gave up a home run, but a tie-breaking homer in the bottom half of the seventh inning let him off the hook and made him a winner. Colin Godrey started and lasted five innings as he allowed two runs, both earned, and five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He allowed one home run and faced 23 batters, throwing 80 pitches – 52 for strikes.
Matthew Kuromoto pitched the sixth and allowed two earned runs, one hit, and hit two batters. He faced six batters and threw 17 pitches – nine strikes. Hank Tobias and Dylan Holt pitched in between Buxton and Chabot and combined they worked an inning and allowed one earned run on two hits with no walks or strikeouts. Tobias allowed a solo home run to sophomore LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) in the eighth.
Centenary finished with nine hits, drew three walks, struck out six times, left nine on base, stole three bases, and made three errors. Chapman also collected nine hits, walked three times, struck out seven times, left three on base, and made one error. Livesay was 3-4 with his homer and two doubles and had two RBI and a walk. Freshman 1B Alex Miller (Cypress, Texas) and senior RF Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) also went deep for Centenary as the two combined to finish 3-8 with three RBI, three runs scored, and two walks.
Senior SS Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) finished 1-5 with a run scored and a stolen base, senior C Jake Gonce (Katy, Texas) went 1-3 with an RBI, a run scored, and a stolen base, and freshman 3B Braeden Morse (Pearland, Texas) was 1-3 with an RBI.
Chapman had two players collect two hits apiece as SS Ryan Nopper and C Kai Osaka combined to go 4-7 with six RBI and four runs scored. CF Nick Naccarato went 1-3 with a run scored and a walk and 1B AJ Anzai went 1-3 with two RBI, two runs scored, and a walk. RF Josh Phillips went 0-3 but drew a walk and scored a run, DH Trent Turquand finished 2-4 with a run scored, 2B Austin Dudas went 1-3 with a run scored.
Centenary led 2-0 after five innings and extended its lead to 4-0 with two more runs in the top of the sixth, but Chapman exploded for six runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 6-4 lead. Miller drew a leadoff walk against Buxton in the top of the seventh and Benoit launched a two-run homer to tie the game at 6-6. Buxton, thought, retired the next three batters to send it to the bottom half deadlocked.
Broussard retired the first two batters but Nopper singled with two outs and went to second on an error by Boone. Anzai then homered to give the Panthers an 8-6 lead and Broussard was replace by Hodges who allowed a single but got an inning-ending strikeout. Livesay homered with two outs in the eighth to cut Centenary's deficit to 8-7 but Holt got Benoit to pop out to end the inning and strand two runners on base. Chabot came in for Holt in the ninth and struck out Boone, got pinch hitter - senior Julien DeLeon (Shreveport, La.) to ground out and freshman Miles Keith (Lindale, Texas) grounded to short to end the game.
Centenary returns to action on Tuesday, March 5 at home against the University of Texas at Dallas Comets in a non-conference game set for 6 p.m. at Shehee Stadium.
See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home athletic contests. 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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