Softball Welcomes Nationally-Ranked Belhaven To Town On Tuesday
The Centenary softball team takes a break from conference play on Tuesday as the Ladies will face the nationally-ranked Belhaven University Blazers in a non-conference doubleheader set for 3 p.m. at the Centenary Softball Complex.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Belhaven
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 3 |
|
Centenary (La.)
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
Game 2
Game 2
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Belhaven
|
0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
|
Centenary (La.)
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Shreveport – The Centenary softball team takes a break from conference play on Tuesday as the Ladies will face the nationally-ranked Belhaven University Blazers in a non-conference doubleheader set for 3 p.m. at the Centenary Softball Complex.
Live stats and live video are available for both games at the links below:
STATS: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2024-25/boxscores/20250401_h02v.xml
VIDEO: https://www.ktalnews.com/gocentenary/watch-live-centenary-college-sports-2024-2025/
The Ladies (14-11) enter Tuesday's action on a season-high eight game winning streak after recording a road sweep over the University of Dallas Crusaders in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play this past weekend in Irving, Texas. Centenary, now 9-8 in league play, won 6-2 on Sunday after sweeping a DH on Saturday, winning 3-0 in game one and 9-1 in five innings in game two.
Belhaven, the 2024 national runner-up from a season ago, enters Tuesday's action at 20-6 overall and is ranked No. 13 in the latest NFCA/GoRout Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll. The Blazers have won three games in a row and are 5-2 on the road this season. Centenary and Belhaven have met four times in history with the Blazers winning all four, including a DH sweep in Jackson, Miss. last season. Centenary and Belhaven were originally scheduled to meet on Feb. 11 but inclement weather forced the games to be rescheduled to Tuesday.
Centenary swept LeTourneau University on March 25 in a DH at home which was preceded by a three-game sweep of the Southwestern University Pirates in league play at home March 21-22 to start the winning streak. The Ladies' winning streak is their longest since March 16-24, 2019 and Centenary has also exceeded both its total number of overall wins and conference wins from last season with 14 games remaining in the regular season, of which 12 are league contests. The Ladies are 7-5 at home this season with five-straight wins on their home field.
Senior P Anna Scarbrock (Alexandria, La.) was one of the catalysts for the Ladies' success last week and she was appropriately named the SCAC Pitcher of the Week on Monday after she did not allow an earned run in 14 innings as she tossed a pair of complete games against LeTourneau and Dallas. Scarbrock, who now has five CG's this season, allowed one unearned run and seven hits in the two starts with no walks and four strikeouts. She is 6-4 this season with a 2.93 ERA in 12 appearances and nine starts. In 55.0 IP, she has struck out 17 batters while walking only three. She is tied for first on the team in wins, games started, second in ERA, second on the team in IP, and tied for second in appearances.
Senior Emma Shepherd (Athens, La.) is the team leader in ERA (2.21), appearances (16), IP (66.2), and is tied with Scarbrock for wins with six as she is 6-3 this season with six games started. Shepherd made history on March 22 against Southwestern as she struck out 14 batters, which is the most by a Centenary pitcher in a single game in the division III era (2012-present) of the program. Shepherd went the distance and allowed one earned run and two hits in her seven innings of work. Shepherd's 14 strikeouts are the most by a SCAC pitcher in a game this season. She currently ranks sixth in the conference in ERA and IP and seventh in strikeouts with 51.
Senior UT Viviana Rivero (Redondo Beach, Calif.) and senior Abby Touchet (Shreveport, La.) are two of the conference's top offensive players as Rivero is tied for sixth in the league in RBI (22) and Touchet is eighth with 21. Rivero is hitting .392 (second on team) with a .395 on-base percentage and is slugging .532. She has a team-high 31 hits in 79 at-bats with 10 runs scored, five doubles, two home runs, a team-leading four sacrifice flies, three BB, and only seven strikeouts. Rivero has recorded 10 multi-hit games this season with a season-high four against Ozarks on Feb. 28.
Touchet leads the team in batting average (.411), home runs (five), and doubles (six), and is second in hits (30) and RBI (21). In 73 AB, she has only struck out four times while drawing a team-high 15 BB and has been hit by a pitch three times. She has a .522 OBP and is slugging a team-best .699 with 10 multi-hit games which includes one 3-hit performance. Touchet has also driven in 2+ runs in game seven times with a season-high four at Ozarks on March 1.
Centenary has a .279 team batting average with a .360 OBP and is slugging .359 with eight home runs, 36 extra-base hits, and 242 total bases. The Ladies have scored 115 total runs and average 4.6 per game with six games of 10+ hits. The Ladies scored a season-high 10 runs in a 10-3 win over Millsaps College on Feb. 8 at home in the second game of a season-opening DH.
Centenary will resume conference play at home this weekend versus Austin College (2-26, 2-16 SCAC). The Ladies were picked to finish seventh this season in the SCAC preseason coaches' poll this season and are currently sixth in the league standings.
The 2025 SCAC Softball Tournament, a double-elimination event, will be held May 2-4 on the campus of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. The Ladies have made eight-consecutive SCAC Tournament appearances.
Current SCAC Standings (with conference records):
1 Texas Lutheran 17-1
2 Trinity 17-4
3 St. Thomas 13-4
4 Concordia 13-7
5 Southwestern 11-7
6 Centenary 9-8
7 McMurry 10-10
T8 Ozarks 4-14
T8 Schreiner 4-14
10 Dallas 3-18
11 Austin College 2-16
Ladies' Remaining Schedule:
vs. Austin College (April 5-6)
vs. McMurry (April 11-12)
at Trinity (April 18-19)
at Schreiner (April 26-27)
See the complete Ladies' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2024-25/schedule
Admission is FREE to all Centenary home softball games. Live stats and live video stream are available for all Centenary home contests.
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