CLEVELAND - The Centre baseball team lived to play later today as the Colonels exploded on offense in a 13-5 victory over the North Central Cardinals in an elimination game in the NCAA Tournament.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
- In the opening inning the Cardinals struck first as they took an early 1-0 after a leadoff walk, a double and an RBI groundout.
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Aaron Lopez led off the second inning for Centre with a base hit, followed by
Baylor Woodall legging out an infield hit on a bunt. With one out,
Jamison Craig put Centre in the lead with one swing of the bat, belting a three-run homer to put the Colonels on top 3-1.
- The rally continued with two outs as
Ben Prather and
Ayden Lohr each singled and
Evan Weyler connected on an opposite field double into the gap to increase the Centre lead to 5-1.
- The Colonels kept the pressure on in the third as Lopez again led off with a base hit. Craig came up again with two outs and delivered another single as a two-base error by NCC put the freshman on third base and brought in Lopez.
JT Weisberg then made the Cardinals pay for the error as he lined a base hit up the middle to drive in Craig and make it a 7-1 game.
- North Central cut the deficit in half in the fourth with a three-run homer to make it 7-4.
- In the bottom of the fourth it was Centre's turn to answer and they did as Lohr led off with a single up the middle and eventually scored on an RBI base hit from
Graham Johnson. The Colonels manufactured another run as Johnson stole second, advanced again on a passed ball and scored on an RBI groundout by Lopez to make it 9-4.
- Things calmed down until the seventh when Centre produced another rally. It started with Woodall reaching on his second bunt single of the game. A base hit by
Chase Austin put runners on the corners and Craig laid down a sacrifice bunt to drive in Woodall for a 10-4 lead. A double by Weisberg and a single by Prather drove in a pair of runs and Centre increased the lead to 12-4.
- The final run of the day for the Colonels came in the eighth as Johnson capped off a brilliant team offensive performance with a solo home run.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Six different players drove in runs for the Colonels, led by Craig with a career high four RBIs, including his first career home run in the second that put Centre up for good.
- Every player who made a plate appearance for Centre had at least one hit, with Lohr leading with three hits.
- Prather pitched seven innings and struck out eight to get the win and improve to 8-0 on the year.
