WHITEWATER, Wisc. - Fresh off a pair of elimination game victories, the Centre baseball team advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Tournament double elimination Regional pod, where the Colonels fell to the host Warhawks of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by a score of 6-4.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
- UWW, who had scored ten or more runs in both of their NCAA Tournament games to this point, struck the first blow in the second inning as a leadoff hit by pitch eventually resulted in the runner scoring on a sacrifice fly.
- The Colonels were unfazed by playing from behind against the no. 5 team in the nation, putting up a crooked number in the fourth.
Evan Weyler and
Aaron Lopez delivered consecutive opposite field singles, and then with the runners on second and third,
Jamie Laframboise came through with a clutch base hit to drive in two and put Centre on top.
- After the Warhawks tied the game in the fourth, Centre answered right back in their next time at bat as a leadoff double by
Conner Jackson was followed by singles from
Josh Cunningham and
Ayden Lohr, with the former driving in another run. With Cunningham on third,
Ben Prather laid down a sacrifice bunt that drove in the speedy Centre leadoff man and the Colonels took a 4-2 lead.
- Things settled down until the bottom of the seventh when Whitewater rallied for four runs, the last two coming on a two-run homer with two outs. That proved to be the winning hit as the Colonels failed to record a hit in the final two innings.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Laframboise's two RBIs brought his Centre tournament high total to seven. Jackson and Lohr paced the Colonels with two hits each today.
- Freshman reliever
TJ Schira escaped a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth to keep the Warhawks off the board in a similar fashion as his clutch outing against Millsaps in the SAA Tournament.
Centre baseball wraps up the 2024 season with a 36-13 overall record, setting overwhelming team school records for wins and winning percentage while securing their first conference title since 1987, first outright conference title ever, first conference tournament championship ever and first NCAA Tournament appearance and wins ever.
