By Harry Davis
Staff writer
On March 4, the Sewanee Baseball team lost to the Centre Colonels 8-7 after they lost the previous two games on March 3, 5-3 and 4-0.
The Centre Colonels held a record of three wins and four losses going into the series with wins over LaGrange (8-6), Midway (10-4), and Berea (9-1). Last year, the Tigers won two out of three games in the season series before a 13-3 win in the postseason. The Colonels came to Sewanee looking to avenge last year’s game in the postseason.
After losing three straight to Rhodes College, Sewanee dropped the next two games on March 3 to Centre. The first game started off with a three-run homer in the first inning that would carry Centre the rest of the way to a 5-3 win; in the second game, both teams’ offenses struggled before Centre scored three times in the top of seventh. Sewanee still had a chance to end the weekend on a positive note with one final game on March 4.
Centre’s offense started the game hot with two hits in each of the first two innings to make the score 4-0 at the bottom of the second. The Tigers started to chip away at the lead as Trey Akins (C’19) and Jared Demkowicz (C’20) scored in the bottom of the second and Akins scored again in the bottom of the fourth.
Both teams traded a run in the fifth inning to make the score 5-4 for Centre. Sewanee’s offense started the bottom of the sixth with hits by Drew Mancuso (C’18) and Tyler Dunbar (C’21), before Jake Woolard (C’21) hit a sacrifice fly which allowed Mancuso to score.
The offense kept coming as Bryce Benedict (C’19) then doubled to right centerfield, which brought Akins in for the score. Benedict advanced to third on a wild pitch before Josh Roberts (C’19) hit a sacrifice fly to bring Benedict home to put the Tigers ahead 7-5.
Both teams’ offenses went dry for the next two innings until Centre loaded the bases in the top of the ninth inning. Centre then hit a sacrifice fly and a double to left field to bring in three runs. The Tigers had one more chance at the bottom of the ninth to score, but instead, they hit three consecutive pop flies to lose the game 8-7. It was another tough loss for the Tigers.
David Jenkins, Head Coach of the Tigers, was the guest at the weekly “Coffee with the Coach” at the Blue Chair Tavern on March 5. Following the rough start to the season, Jenkins remarked, “Outside of two games, we’ve been in every contest, but we’ve never put all three phases of the game together: pitching, defense, and hitting…So, we just need to put all three phases of the game together and I think once we do that we’re capable of going on a little bit of a run.”
Sewanee will continue their homestand against Covenant on Tuesday, March 13, followed by a three-game series against Birmingham-Southern on Saturday, March 17, and Sunday, March 18.