GEORGETOWN, Texas -- The Southwestern University Pirates baseball team dropped its second consecutive game to the Centenary Gents, falling 9-7.
Centenary continued to show patience and pop in its bats, drawing a walk and a single to leftfield by M. Hilbrich in the top of the first to put runners on the corners with one out, setting up Cameron Guin's RBI-single to deep centerfield.
Senior Jordan Scott recovered on the mound to get out of the inning with minimum damage, inducing to fly outs. Southwestern was unable to respond, getting a two-out double from Colby Schmidt before Byron Dowdell II lined out to shortstop, leaving the Pirates trailing 1-0.
Left-hander Travis Harvey took the mound to start the second inning for Southwestern, giving up a two-out RBI-single by Crowder to leftfield to give the Gents a 2-0 lead.
Chase Thinger opened up the bottom of the third with a leadoff single, finding the gap between the infield and outfield with a shallow fly ball. Hayden Craig followed with a single to left field, reaching second on the throw to third as Thinger stretched the opportunity into an extra base.
Montgomery plated the Pirates' first run on the next at-bat, sending a sacrifice fly to the wall in centerfield, scoring Thinger. Senior Cole Kelly followed with another sacrifice fly to the same spot, scoring Craig to tie the game at 2-2.
The Gents responded in the top of the fourth put two on with two outs, advancing both to second and third on a passed ball to setup a two-RBI single to right-center by Ludwick, who would steal second and score on an a dropped fly ball with Quin reaching.
Harvey walked the next two batters to load the bases, giving way to Koba Kobayashi, who induced a flyout to centerfield to get out of the inning trailing 5-2.
Kevin Stein reached on a one-out double to left-center in the bottom of the fourth, stretching a single to put a runner in scoring position. Senior Ethan Hallmark followed with a seeing-eye single to right field. Seth Sparks moved both over with a hit-and-run groundout to third.
Thinger knocked both in with a two-RBI single that shot just past Welch's head for a single up the middle to bring the Pirates back within one at 5-4.
Southwestern University's defense carried the momentum into the top of the fifth with a three-up, three-down inning highlighted by Montgomery stretching out with a beautiful diving catch, his momentum carrying him beyond third base but his arm strength more than able enough to make the throw to first to end the inning.
The offense was unable to capitalize, sending three consecutive flyouts to centerfield to go down in order in the bottom of the fifth.
Southwestern's defense held up again in the top of the sixth, getting the lead runner out on a 6-5-4 fielder's choice rundown. Sparks followed by ending the inning on a 4-3 double play, simultaneously fielding the ground, tagging the runner and throwing to first.
Stein drew a one-out walk, scoring on Seth Spark's two-out RBI double to left-center with a great jump on the hit, sliding into home to tied the game at 5-5. Thinger put the Pirates ahead, scoring Sparks from second with a RBI-single to left field; ending Welch's afternoon with Yates replacing him on the mound while Welch remained as the designated hitter.
Centenary opened eighth with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners with no outs via the hit-and-run executed by Andrew Russell. Chris Haggard tied the game with an infield single, sending a rocket at Montgomery, ricocheting off the third baseman before he could even blink; ending Kobayashi's afternoon as Head Coach J.C. Bunch turned to Machi Horne with two on and no outs.
Horne walked the first three batters he faced to give Centenary an 8-6 lead before giving way to Trey Schwarz. Brandon Griffin added another on a sacrifice fly with the Pirates picking up a second out at second as Ludwick got caught trying to advance to third. Welch struck out swinging to finally end the inning with the Gents leading 9-6.
The Pirates were gifted a trio of runners in the bottom of the eighth with three walks and one out but grounded out into an inning-ending double play.
Hayden Craig gave the Pirates life in the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run to left field. Montgomery followed with a single to right-center but two consecutive fly outs cut the comeback short.