Marshall, Texas – The Centenary baseball teams' season came to end on Saturday afternoon as the Diamond Gents lost 10-5 to the No. 2 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags in an elimination game of the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship at Tiger Ballpark at Woods Field.
The No. 4 seed Diamond Gents (23-20) lost 5-2 to the nationally-ranked East Texas Baptist University Tigers on Friday to fall into the losers' bracket. The Stags (31-14) will now face Concordia University in an elimination game at 6 p.m.
Tournament Central: https://bit.ly/NCAAbb24REGIONALmarshallTX
The NCAA Championship berth was Centenary's third all-time after appearing in the 2017 event in Tyler, Texas where the Diamond Gents went 1-2 and the 2022 tournament where the Maroon and White went 0-3 against the LaGrange College Panthers in LaGrange, Ga. Centenary is now 1-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament after today's loss with its lone win coming back on May 18, 2017 – a 12-1 win over Linfield in the West Regional in Tyler, Texas.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps scored once in the top of the first and added two more runs in the second for a 3-0 lead. The Stags then scored a pair in the fourth and four in the fifth to open up a comfortable 9-0 lead. The Diamond Gents got on the board with a run in the seventh and the Stags scored one final time in the top of the eighth to make it 10-1. Centenary then scored four times in its final at-bat to close the gap to 10-5.
The Stags finished with 14 hits, walked twice, struck out seven times, left eight on base, and made two errors while The Diamond Gents had seven hits, drew two walks, struck out six times, left 10 on base, and made one error.
Senior P Blaine Hardy (Shreveport, La.) started on the mound for Centenary and suffered the loss as he went four innings and allowed five runs, all earned, and six hits with a walk, two strikeouts, and allowed three home runs. Hardy (4-2) faced 21 batters, hitting one, and threw 60 pitches – 39 for strikes.
Hamilton Finefrock (5-1) started for the Stags and got the win as he pitched four innings and blanked the Diamond Gents on two hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He faced 15 batters and threw 49 pitches – 32 for strikes. Four Stags' relievers combined to pitch the final five innings and allowed five runs, four earned, with a BB and two K's. Claremont-M-S pitchers combined to hit five Centenary batters and throw two wild pitches.
Junior LHP Tyler Herrera (Spring, Texas) relieved Hardy and lasted just 0.2 innings and was charged with four runs, three earned, and five hits. He faced seven batters, threw two wild pitches and struck out two and did not walk a batter. Herrera threw 29 pitches – 16 for strikes. Sophomore RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas) pitched the final 4.1 innings and allowed just one earned run and three hits with a BB and three K's and allowed one home run. He faced 17 batters, threw one wild pitch, and pf his 59 pitches, 38 were strikes.
Sophomore LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) led the Centenary offense as he finished 3-4 with an RBI and a run scored and freshman 1B Alex Miller (Cypress, Texas) went 2-5 with an RBI. Sophomore 3B Clay Menard (Berwick, La.) was 0-4 but walked once and scored a run, senior SS Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) was 0-3 with a walk, and freshman 2B Braeden Morse (Pearland, Texas) finished 1-3 with a run scored. Senior C Jake Gonce (Katy, Texas) was 1-4 with a double, senior CF Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) was 0-4 with an RBI groundout, and junior McKenly McLaughlin (Georgetown, Texas) had a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Menard drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth, Miller had an RBI single, and then Benoit's groundout and McLaughlin's sac fly were the fourth and fifth runs for the Diamond Gents.
Two Stags' players – DH Andrew Mazzone and 3B Rider Gordon, had three hits each and Bryce Didrickson was 1-5 with two RBI and a run scored. SS Tyler Shaw went 1-5 with an RBI, Blaise Heher finished 1-4 with an RBI, a walk, and two runs scored and CF Jack Potter was 1-4 with an RBI and a run scored. 1B Julian Sanders was 1-5, 2B Dillon Martin finished 1-3 with a run, and C Adam Dapkewicz was 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Heher, Mazzone, Didrickson, and Dapkewicz all homered and Sanders had a double.
Friday, May 17
#1 ETBU 5 #4 Centenary 2
#3 Concordia Texas 13 #2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7
Saturday, May 18
#2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 10 #4 Centenary 5
#1 ETBU 7 #3 Concordia Texas 3
Game 5 - (6:00 p.m.) - #2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. #3 Concordia Texas (Elimination Game) | LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS
Sunday, May 19
Game 6 (11:00 a.m.) - G4 Winner vs. G5 Winner
Game 7 (2:30 p.m.) - if needed
*Winner moves onto Super Regional Round*
See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/schedule
#GoCentenary #CTheOpportunity
