SHREVEPORT, La. -- Ian Graham hit a game winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th to give the Centenary Gents a 3-2 win over the Trinity Tigers and punch their ticket into the SCAC Championship Game. Official Website l Interactive Bracket l Ian Graham Interview l Head Coach Mike Diaz Interview l Photos
In what was a great pitching duel featuring Layton Tromba and Taylor Henry of Centenary and Zach Speer and Nick Griffith of Trinity. The two starters, Tromba and Speer, kept each other off balance throughout the first four innings of play.
Centenary would strike first in the fifth inning as a RBI single from Dakota Brown drove in Christian Sebastien and gave the Gents the early 1-0 lead.
The Tigers would respond in the sixth inning as Conner Moore led the inning off with a triple and would score of a liner into left from Drew Butler, tying the game at one a piece.
The Gents would take the lead right back in the bottom half of the sixth as Kody Carson beat out a single to short to score a run and give Centenary a 2-1 lead.
Henry, the SCAC Pitcher of the Year, held Trinity in check, but the Tigers would look to tie things up in the top of the ninth. The first two runners would reach and followed by an out at third, the Gents would commit two errors as they attemoted to pick the runner off at second. The ball sailed into the outfield and was then misplayed by the centerfielder, scoring a run and tying things up at two.
Henry dug in and got the next two outs to leave the go ahead run stranded and the game remained tied.
The Gents loaded the bases in the ninth thanks to a pair of errors by Trinity in the field, leading to the game winning run.
Tromba pitched 5.1 innings, allowing only one run on four hits while striking out two. Henry would earn his fifth win of the season, going 4.2 innings and allowing only one run on two hits to go with four strikeouts.
On the other side, Speer pitched six innings, allowing two runs on nine hits with two K's while Griffith took the loss, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing no earned runs with three strikeouts.
Offensively, Chris Zapata finished 2-for-4 with a double and Sebastien was 2-for-3 with a run scored. Carson also had a pair of hits with a RBI while Graham and Brown drove in the other two runs.
For Trinity, Moore was the only Tigers to have a multi-hit game, going 2-for-5 with a triple and a run scored. Butler also drove in a run while Carter McEachern scored a run.
Centenary moves onto the championship game at noon tomorrow, only needing one win to claim the title while their opponent will need to win twice.
For Trinity, they will battle Southwestern tonight as the winner of that game will move into that championship game to battle the Gents.
