Shreveport– The Centenary baseball team fell 7-5 to the East Texas Baptist University Tigers in its final home game of the season on Tuesday evening in a non-conference contest at Shehee Stadium.
The Diamond Gents (16-12) had their season-high four game winning streak snapped and finished 13-7 at home this season. The Tigers (25-8) extended their winning streak to 14 games. The teams will face each other next Tuesday in Marshall, Texas.
Centenary will return to Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play this weekend for a key series on the road at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. The Diamond Gents are 8-6 in conference play following a home sweep over Schreiner last weekend but will face a tough test against the Pirates (22-7, 10-2 SCAC), the current conference leader by 1.5 games over Texas Lutheran and Trinity (each 11-4). Centenary is in fourth place and two games ahead of St. Thomas (6-8).
The SCAC Baseball Championship will be held May 5-7 in Cleburne, Texas. The top four teams at the end of the regular season qualify for the event. Centenary is the defending tournament champion.
Following a scoreless first inning, the Tigers scored three times in the top of the second off of Centenary starting pitcher, freshman LHP Cody Myers (Friendswood, Texas). CF Nick Massarini drove in 1B Jase Jones with an RBI single, then a double steal produced the Tigers' second run, and Massarini came home on a wild pitch.
Centenary got a run back in the bottom half of the second as senior SS Noah Koehmstedt (San Diego, Calif.) singled and junior DH Austyn Benoit (Welsh, La.) scored when Massarini misplayed the ball for an error. RF Brett Wagner extended ETBU's lead to 4-1 in the top of the third when he singled to score 2B Carson Wilson.
The Diamond Gents tied the game at 4-4 with three runs in the fifth. Centenary loaded the bases with none out and junior 2B Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) had an RBI groundout to make it 4-2. Sophomore RF Cade LaBruyere (Iowa, La.) then reached on an infield single to score freshman OF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.). Freshman 1B Collin Pitts (Lufkin, Texas) capped the scoring with a game-tying sacrifice fly to score senior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas).
Miller's sac fly in the top of the sixth brought home LF Ben Lea and give the Tigers a 5-4 lead. Sophomore Zachery Van Gorkom (Shreveport, La.) came through with a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the sixth and Koehmstedt raced around from second on an error by Wagner to tie the game at 5-5.
Wagner and 3B Jacob Evanelista had sac flies in the seventh and eighth inning for the Tigers, the final two runs of the game. ETBU finished with three sac flies, stole four bases, had nine hits, and walked four times. The Tigers struck out five times, left seven on base, and made four errors. The Diamond Gents finished with 12 hits, left seven on base, struck out only three times, and drew one walk. They made one error and did not steal a base. Centenary hit into four double plays in the game, thwarting multiple scoring chances.
Myers went 2.2 innings and allowed four runs, three earned, and four hits with two walks and one strikeout. He faced 15 batters and threw 58 pitches, 32 for strikes. Freshman RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas) was charged with the loss as he was the fourth of seven pitchers and allowed one hit, one run, and a walk in 0.1 innings. He faced three batters, hitting one, and threw 10 pitches – three strikes.
Jagger Neely started for the Tigers and went 4.1 innings. He allowed four runs, three earned, and 10 hits with no walks and one K. He faced 22 batters and threw 66 pitches (47 strikes). Matthew Irwin (1-1) picked up the win as the fourth reliever of the night. He pitched one perfect inning with one K, throwing 10 of his 15 pitches for strikes to the three batters he faced.
Livesay was 3-3 with a walk and a run scored and Koehmstedt also finished 3-3 with a run. LaBruyere was 2-4 with an RBI and Boone and Pitts had the other two RBI. Miller, Lea, and Massarini combined to go 6-10 with two RBI, two runs scored, a walk, and three stolen bases for the Tigers.
See the complete Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/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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