JACKSON, Miss. – Centre baseball earned its 30th victory of the season with the most dramatic victory of the season, staying alive in the SAA Tournament with a 5-1 victory over the no. 4 seed Berry Vikings.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
- The Vikings delivered the first blow as Berry connected on a solo homer to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second.
- From there,
Ben Prather pitched his way out of jams in each of the next three innings as both teams put runners in scoring position but failed to get them across.
- The score remained 1-0 the rest of the way until the ninth. It started when Prather retired the Vikings in order to finish off nine incredible innings.
Evan Weyler led off and beat out a slow roller to the second baseman for a single.
- With one out,
Chase Austin connected on a base hit to put Weyler in scoring position.
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Aaron Lopez came up with the Colonels down to their final out and found himself down to the last strike, but he recovered and walked to load the bases and keep the game alive.
- In just his fourth at-bat of the season,
Harrison Tibe came up with the bases loaded. Normally a defensive replacement, Tibe also found himself down to the game's final strike, but he dug deep and worked the bases loaded walk for an RBI that brought in Weyler for the tying run.
- Fittingly, Prather was next in the lineup for Centre and he deposited a 1-1 pitch over the left field wall for an epic walk-off grand slam for the win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The grand slam was the first hit of the tournament for Prather, who also delivered one of the best pitching performances of his career, allowing just six hits and the solo shot in the second while going the distance.
- Tibe's bases loaded walk in the ninth was the first RBI of his career.
- Austin was the only Centre player to finish with multiple hits.
- The win was the 200th in the career of Centre head coach Drew Briese.
NEXT UP
Originally scheduled for later on Friday, Centre's next elimination game against top seed Millsaps was postponed to Saturday at 3 PM due to weather.
