Shreveport– The Centenary baseball team clinched a series victory with a 5-2 win on Saturday over the Schreiner University Mountaineers in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play at Shehee Stadium.
The Diamond Gents (15-11, 7-6 SCAC) opened the series on Friday evening with a 6-2 win over Mountaineers (15-15, 4-10 SCAC). The series finale is set for 10 a.m. on Sunday. Centenary will honor its 2023 senior class following the conclusion of Sunday's game. The ceremony will also be live streamed.
Live stats and live video are available for the game at the links below:
Stats: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230416_xzt8.xml
Video: https://collegetvticket.com/event/centenary-college-vs-schreiner-university-13/
Centenary head coach Mike Diaz is now just one win away from becoming the all-time winningest coach in program history. Diaz, currently in his 13th season, is 291-207-1, and needs just a single victory to match former HC Ed McCann (1999-2010). The Diamond Gents are now 26-3 all-time against Schreiner and 16-1 all-time against them at Shehee Stadium. Centenary, 12-6 at home this season, is 45-14 on its home field since the beginning of the 2021 season.
Centenary and Schreiner are both battling for a berth into next month's SCAC Baseball Championship (May 5-7) in Cleburne, Texas. The Diamond Gents, the defending tournament champions, are currently fourth in the league standings and now 3.5 games ahead of the Mountaineers. The top four teams at the end of the regular season qualify for the event.
The Mountaineers took an early 1-0 lead with a run in the top of the first as C Gerardo Cardoza singled home 2B Adam Sanchez. Freshman RHP Aidan Reichek (Bellaire, Texas) settled in and retired the next three batters, stranding two, to limit the damage. Centenary then immediately responded with four runs in its half of the inning to take a 4-1 lead.
Freshman LF Carson Livesay (Lafayette, La.) singled to left and stole second base. Senior CF Gary Hewitt (Cedar Park, Texas) then reached on an infield single to short, which scored Livesay, and he moved to second on the throw. Junior 2B Jobee Boone (Opelousas, La.) flew out for the first out and sophomore RF Cade LaBruyere (Iowa, La.) walked. Freshman 1B Collin Pitts (Lufkin, Texas) then reached on an error which scored a run to give Centenary a 2-1 lead. Freshman DH Lenny Forth (Flower Mound, Texas) then delivered a two-run single for a 4-1 lead.
Pitts, who hit his first-career home run on Friday night, led off the third inning with a laser over the left field wall for his second homer in as many days to extend the Centenary lead to 5-1. LF Tyler Juarez belted a long solo home run just to the right of the CF wall in the eighth for the Mountaineers' second and final run of the game.
Reicheck (2-1) was impressive in his fifth start and 10th appearance of the season as the rookie went six innings and allowed just one earned run and six hits with no walks and four strikeouts. He faced 24 batters and threw 94 pitches (54 strikes). Freshman RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas) relieved him and went 2.2 innings and allowed Juarez's home run and two total hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out four. He faced 10 batters and threw 38 pitches (28 strikes).
Freshman LHP Cody Myers (Friendswood, Texas) relieved Broussard with two outs in the ninth and faced one batter. He induced a ground ball but freshman 3B Clay Menard (Berwick, La.) could not handle it and was charged with an error to put two men on and bring the tying run to the plate. Senior RHP Parker Primeaux (Lake Charles, La.) was summoned from the bullpen and came on to get CF Adam Warren on a ground out to Menard to end the game. Primeaux notched his third save of the season and second in as many days. He now has 16 in his career as he is now just one save away from the all-time program record (17) in the division III era (2012-present) held by former All-American Taylor Henry.
Brandon Cardenas (4-2) started and suffered the loss for Schreiner. He allowed five runs, three earned, and seven hits in 2.2 innings of work. He walked two and struck out one as he faced 18 batters and threw 74 pitches (46 strikes). Luke Rogers came in and pitched the final 5.1 innings and allowed six hits with no walks and one K. He kept Centenary off the scoreboard as he faced 20 batters and pounded the strike zone, with 32 of his 51 pitches being strikes.
Centenary finished with 13 hits while Schreiner had eight. The Diamond Gents drew a pair of walks, only struck out twice, left nine on base, and made one error. Schreiner struck out eight times, did not draw a walk, left seven on base, and made two errors.
Five Centenary players, including the top three in the lineup and five of the first six, had multi-hit games. Forth was 2-4 with two RBI, Hewitt was 2-5 with an RBI and a run scored, and Livesay was 2-5 with a run. The Diamond Gents stole five bases, marking the fifth time this season that they have swiped five or more in a game. They also recorded their 13th game with 10+ hits in a game for the season. Juarez and Warren went a combined 4-8 with an RBI and a run scored for Schreiner.
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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