DANVILLE, Ky. – Centre baseball split with visiting Hendrix Sunday in a doubleheader at Gary Wright Field, winning the opener, 9-4, before dropping the series finale, 4-3.
Centre moves to 8-4 overall and 2-3 in the Southern Athletic Association, while Hendrix is 13-4 overall and 4-2 in-conference.
HIGHLIGHTS: CENTRE 9, HENDRIX 4
After being shut out in Saturday's series opener, the Colonels scored in the bottom of the first of Sunday's first game.
Patrick Hope brought
Drew Schacht in on a sacrifice fly.
Hendrix seemed poised to answer in the top of the second, loading the bases with one out, but
Nick Hoffman forced a strikeout and ground out to end the threat.
Centre went off for seven runs in the second, taking an 8-0 lead after four hits and a costly Hendrix error while batting around the lineup.
Seth Hagan provided the big knock of the frame with a two-RBI single to center, scoring
Mason Falbo and
Chris Esselman.
The Warriors would get one back with an unearned run in the top of the fourth, and added another in the fifth on Andrei Stoyanow's RBI ground out.
Hoffman finished with five innings of work on the mound, scattering six hits while striking out five batters.
Hendrix's Josh Walker smacked a solo homer to lead off the sixth, making it 8-3, but Centre quickly responded in the bottom of the frame when Falbo drove in Schacht on a single to right.
The Warriors would score one more in the ninth, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Colonels from leveling the series with a 9-4 victory.
Paul Fiepke,
Jake Holloway and
Clay Rouse combined to toss the final four innings, allowing a combined four hits and two runs. Holloway struck out two in a spotless 1.2 innings.
Falbo, Esselman and
Parker Selin each finished with two hits in the win.
HIGHLIGHTS: HENDRIX 4, CENTRE 3 (7 inn.)
Centre opened the scoring in the third, getting an unearned run across on Hendrix starter Andrei Stoyanow.
The Warriors took the lead in the fourth after manufacturing a two-run rally all on two outs.
Schacht came up with a huge two-out, two-RBI homerun in the fifth to swing the lead back to the Colonels. It marked Centre's first long ball of the season and the first of Schacht's collegiate career.
Hendrix had one last response, however, scoring twice in its last at-bat on RBIs from Tanner Cooper and Juan Pablo Leon. The Warriors retired the Colonels in order in the bottom of the frame to seal the series-clinching win.
Esselman tossed four innings in a starting role, allowing two runs.
UP NEXT
Centre hosts in-state rival Transylvania Tuesday evening with first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m. at Gary Wright Field.
