(Story Courtesy of Centenary Sports Information Department)
MARSHALL, Texas -- The Centenary baseball team fell 5-2 to the nationally-ranked East Texas Baptist University Tigers on Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship at Tiger Ballpark at Woods Field.
Tournament Central: https://bit.ly/NCAAbb24REGIONALmarshallTX
The Diamond Gents (23-19) fall into the losers' bracket and will play at 11 a.m. on Saturday and face the loser of the second game on Friday between No. 2 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (30-13) and No. 3 seed Concordia University (27-16) scheduled for 2:30 p.m. The Tigers, currently ranked fourth in the country in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 and fifth in the latest ABCA Coaches Poll, improved to 37-8.
Sophomore LHP Cody Myers started on the mound for Centenary and suffered a rare loss as he fell to 10-4 as he allowed five runs, four earned, in six innings of work with four walks and eight strikeouts. Myers allowed two home runs and threw two wild pitches. He faced 27 batters and threw 95 pitches – 57 for strikes.
Sophomore RHP Aidan Reichek pitched the final two innings for the Diamond Gents and held the Tigers scoreless on just one hit. He walked one without a strikeout and faced eight batters and he threw 25 pitches, 16 for strikes.
Jagger Neely (10-3) started for the Tigers and picked up the win as he worked six innings and allowed two runs, one earned, and five hits with five walks and three strikeouts. He faced 28 batters and threw 97 pitches, 59 for strikes, and threw one wild pitch.
Peyton Miller relieved Neely and picked up his second save of the season as he pitched the final three innings and did not allow a run or a hit with one walk and one strikeout. He faced only nine batters and threw 34 pitches – 22 strikes.
The Diamond Gents finished with five hits, walked six times, struck out four times, and left eight on base and did not commit an error. The Tigers had six hits, walked five times, struck out eight times, left six on base, and made two errors.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a solo home run by 1B Hunter Rumachik but the Diamond Gents responded with a run in the top of the third to tie the game as sophomore 3B Clay Menard had an RBI groundout. Senior C Jake Gonce drew a leadoff walk to start the third and sophomore CF Collin Pitts reached on a fielder' choice and Gonce was also safe on a throwing error by ETBU SS Dylan Burnaman. Pitts was injured on the play so freshman 2B Braeden Morse entered the game to replace him. Neely then uncorked a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third but he got a big first out as he struck out sophomore LF Carson Livesay. Menard then grounded to short to score Gonce with the tying run. Freshman 1B Alex Miller walked but Neely retired senior RF Austyn Benoit on a fielder's choice.
Gonce then delivered a clutch two-out double in the fourth to score senior SS Jobee Boone and give Centenary a 2-1 lead. Morse followed with a single to put runners at the corners but Neely got Livesay to ground into a fielder's choice to end the inning.
The Tigers tied the game in the bottom half of the fourth as LF Connor Massimini homered off of Myers to make it 2-2. ETBU took the lead in the fifth as Rumachik scored on a passed ball with two outs and then in the sixth he drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs to make it 4-2. Myers, though, struck out DH Cameron French to end the inning. Burnaman delivered an RBI single in the seventh to extend the Tigers' lead to 5-2 but Reicheck got a flyout to end the inning and leave the bases loaded. Each team went up and down in order in the eighth and then Miller retired Gonce, Morse, and Livesay in the ninth to seal the win.
Benoit led Centenary with two hits and Boone, Gonce, and Morse each had one. Gonce also walked twice and had one RBI with a run scored. Menard walked once and had one RBI, freshman Gage Morris had a walk, and freshman DH Walker Wicklund had one walk. Benoit and Morris each stole a base.
Burnaman and Rumachik were a combined 4-7 with three RBI, three runs scored, and a walk to lead the Tigers' offense and Rumachik had a stolen base. Massimini was 1-4 with an RBI and a run scored, C Nicolas Chavez walked twice, RF Brett Wagner walked once, and 2B Carson Wilson had a walk and scored a run.
The NCAA Championship berth is 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 1-6 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. Concordia, a potential opponent this weekend for Centenary, eliminated the Diamond Gents by a score of 13-4 to end a stellar 2017 campaign.
