ROME, Ga. – The Centre baseball team began play in the winners' bracket of the Southern Athletic Association Tournament. The Colonels fell 6-1 to Birmingham Southern in the first game of the day. Then, in an elimination game, the Colonels fell to top seed Berry by a score of 7-3.
GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS
- The Panthers struck first in the second inning, scoring an unearned run on a sacrifice fly.
- After BSC scored another run in the fifth on an RBI double, Centre got an opportunity with runners on second and third in the top of the sixth, but failed to push the runners across the plate.
- Two more BSC runs pushed Centre's deficit to 4-0 in the eighth and the Colonels got another opportunity with a runner in scoring position as
Jordan Gunter led off with a walk and eventually ended up on third, but once again Centre could not put the final hit in the rally necessary to get on the scoreboard.
- Trailing 6-0 in the ninth,
Chris Esselman led off with a double, eventually scoring on a sacrifice fly by
J. Ross to finally get the Colonels on the board, but that was all the offense the Colonels could muster as BSC's Tristan Harvin finished off the complete game one batter later.
GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS
- Berry got on the board in the first inning following a leadoff double and an RBI groundout.
- The Colonels got the run back in the second as
Joshua Cunningham singled with two outs, stole second and scored following a Vikings error.
- The second run of the game for Centre came in a similar fashion as Centre played small ball.
Jordan Gunter led off with a hit, stole second, was sacrificed to third and scored on a wild pitch by the Vikings to give Centre a 2-1 lead.
- Berry retook the lead in their half of the fifth on a clutch two-out, two-RBI single, and then tacked on four more over the next two innings – three unearned – to go up by five.
- In the ninth,
Will Ahrens led off with a double and pinch runner
Cole Fergusson scored following an RBI groundout by Gunter, and Centre put runners on second and third with two outs, but that was the end of the rally as Berry retired the final hitter to seal the win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORES
- The Colonels managed just five hits against BSC's Harvin, with no player recording more than one hit.
-
Carson Werrmann allowed just one earned run in 4.2 innings of work in game 1.
- Centre finished with seven errors across the two games on Saturday, resulting in five unearned runs for their opponents.
- The Colonels swiped five bags in game two, led by Cunningham, who stole a pair, including one that resulted in the first Centre run of the game.
