BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Centre baseball team hit the road for the penultimate conference series of the season as they took on the Birmingham-Southern Panthers, ranked no. 1 in the country. The Panthers took both games of Saturday's doubleheader by scores of 7-1 and 20-7.
Game 1: BSC 7, Centre 1
- The Panthers got on the board first with a solo homer in the second inning.
- The score remained at 1-0 for most of the game until Centre staged a rally in the fifth.
Mark Pyburn and
Evan Weyler worked walks and the Colonels tied the game at 1-1 after
Josh Cunningham delivered a clutch base hit to plate Pyburn.
- BSC would not let the game stay tied for long as they returned fire with six runs in the sixth, including a grand slam, to effectively put the game away.
Game 2: BSC 20, Centre 7
- BSC got off to an even better start in the second game as a pair of three-run home runs were part of a seven-run first inning.
- The Panthers kept up the pressure with eight more runs in the second, three of them unearned.
- In the third, the Colonels cracked the scoreboard as
Dillon Di Iorio,
Ben Prather and
Karson Thompson drew consecutive walks and a sac fly by
Chase Austin produced Centre's first run.
- BSC scored five runs in the bottom of the third to make it 20-1, where it would stay until the sixth. Centre again took advantage of free passes as
Baylor Woodall and
Cole Fergusson led off with a pair of walks. Woodall would score on a passed ball, and then
Matthew Maggard doubled into the gap to score Fergusson. Two more walks loaded the bases. A wild pitch brought home Maggard and then a sac fly from
Perry Nadreau scored
Aaron Lopez to make it 20-5.
- Woodall led off the seventh with another walk.
Luc Morgan, making his first appearance at the plate in weeks, ripped a double the opposite way to plate the sixth Centre run. Another opposite field single by Maggard made it 20-7, but that was the end of the rally as the Panthers got the final outs to seal the victory.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Centre needed just one hit to plate their four runs in the sixth inning of the second game.
-
Ethan McGriff pitched three innings of no-hit ball in relief during game 2.
NEXT UP
The final game between the Colonels and Panthers will take place on Sunday afternoon.