HOOVER, Ala. – The Centre baseball team fell behind early in their tournament game against the Adrian Bulldogs, ranked fifth in the nation. The Colonels staged a furious rally late in the game, but could not get over the hump in a 7-5 loss.
 
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
 
- The Bulldogs struck first in the opening inning, taking advantage of Centre miscues as an error, a wild pitch and a passed ball led to a rally that produced four runs, all of them unearned.
- In Centre's half of the first, Jordan Gunter led off with a double, was sacrificed to third, and then scored on an opposite field base hit by Patrick Hope.
- Adrian rallied for two more runs in the fourth, and while Centre was able to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth, they failed to send a runner across the late and reached the halfway point of the game trailing by five runs.
- The Centre offense finally awoke in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases on a double by Micah Cowen and walks to Will Ahrens and Jamie LaFramboise. After an Adrian pitching change, Gunter ripped a base hit up the middle to score the first run of the inning. With the bases still loaded, Mark Pyburn was hit by a pitch for an RBI. An RBI groundout by Hope made it 6-4, and then Josh Cunningham ripped a double down the left field line to score Gunter and narrow the deficit to a single run.
- The Bulldogs tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly, and Centre was unable to get on base over the final two innings.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
 
- Six different Centre players had hits on the day, led by Gunter and Hope with two each.
- Five of Adrian's seven runs came with two outs.
 
NEXT UP
 
Centre baseball will return to action on Mar. 1 as they travel to Louisville for a matchup against Spalding.