SEWANEE, Tenn. – Centre baseball equaled its longest win streak of the season and earned a conference series victory with a doubleheader sweep of the Sewanee Tigers. The Colonels won 8-4 in game 1 and then won 2-0 in the seven-inning game 2 behind a pair of excellent pitching performances.
Game 1: Centre 8, Sewanee 4
- The Colonels jumped out of the gates with one of their best offensive innings of the season.
Jordan Gunter led off with a base hit and one error later, he was on third and
Mark Pyburn was on second.
Josh Cunningham beat out an infield hit to score the first run of the game, and then
Patrick Hope drove in another with an RBI groundout. With two outs,
Dillon Di Iorio worked a walk on the eighth pitch of the at-bat to put runners on first and second and
Luc Morgan's base hit the opposite way put Centre up 3-0.
Will Kempf then singled to plate the fourth run, and the rally ended on Gunter's bases loaded walk with an at-bat that reached nine pitches.
- In the second, Centre staged another two-out rally to score another run.
Karson Thompson ripped a base hit up the middle and stole second, scoring after Di Iorio singled into center field, putting the Colonels up by six.
- Centre added another in the sixth on a pair of opposite field hits. Pyburn doubled into the gap and then Hope went the other way to give Centre a 7-0 lead.
- With Gunter on third and Cunningham on first in the eighth, Cunningham attempted to steal second. Although he was caught in the act, the catcher's throw to second was all the speedy Gunter needed to take off for home and plate the Colonels' eighth run of the day.
- Sewanee finally got on the board in the ninth with four runs, but the deficit was too large and the Colonels shut down the rally to get the win and secure the series victory.
Game 2: Centre 2, Sewanee 0
- The seven-inning contest was a pitchers' duel for most of the day as the Sewanee bullpen went out for out with Centre's
Carson Werrmann for the first few innings. The Colonels finally broke the seal in the fourth, loading the bases as a hit by Morgan was sandwiched in between singles by
Perry Nadreau and
Cole Fergusson.
Jamie Laframboise put Centre on the board with a sac fly to right, giving the Colonels a 1-0 lead at the halfway point.
- The Colonels got an insurance run in the top of the seventh as Pyburn led off with a base hit, advanced to second and scored on an RBI double into the gap by Hope.
- The two runs were more than enough for Werrmann, who promptly retired the side in the bottom of the seventh to put a lid on the complete game shutout.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORES
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David Sickles was outstanding on the mound for Centre in game 1. He threw just under a hundred pitches in seven innings of work, allowing just five baserunners and three hits while striking out five Tiger batters.
- Pyburn, Cunningham and Kempf each paced the Colonels with two hits in game 1. It was the first multi-hit game for Kempf in his career. Pyburn was the only Centre player with multiple hits in both doubleheader games.
- Nadreau continued his hot streak at the plate, going 2-3 with the insurance run in the seventh
- Werrmann has by far his finest start of the season in game 2, going the distance on 110 pitches, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out a season high 12 Sewanee hitters.
- Werrmann's 12 strikeouts were one shy of a career high for the senior, set in 2020 against Principia.
NEXT UP
The Colonels will return to Gary Wright Field at Fishman Park next for their final home games of the season as the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels come to Danville for a three-game set.
