'Roo Baseball Drops Extra Inning Heartbreaker

SHERMAN, Texas – The Austin College baseball team jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Centenary but couldn't hold on, falling 6-5 in extra innings on Friday night in the team's first home game since February 20. The 'Roos fall to 3-9 overall and 1-3 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play with the loss.

After a scoreless first inning, Austin College plated four runs in the bottom of the second starting with an RBI bunt single from Jeremy Halford. James Arguello followed up with an RBI single, Halford came home on an error, and Gus Daniel drew a bases loaded walk to put the 'Roos ahead 4-0 heading into the top of the third.

Two runs crossed the plate for the Gents in the third inning on a single to right field by Chris Zapata, but Dylan Day's sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning made it a 5-2 lead for Austin College. Centenary tacked on a run in the fourth to cut it to a 5-3 game, and that would remain the score until the top of the eighth, when a pair of errors opened the door for two runs by the Gents to square things up.

Neither team was able to tally in the ninth, and with two outs in the top of the 10^th, Christian Sebastien belted a double to deep left field to score Kody Carson and make it a 6-5 game. Austin College put one runner on in the bottom half of the inning, but was unable to get the tying run across.

Josh Lewis took the loss for Austin College, surrendering three runs – two earned – on three hits in 3.0 innings of work. Thomas Oberg went 2-for-5 with a run scored to lead Austin College offensively. Zapata went 3-for-5 with two RBI for Centenary and Taylor Henry earned the win after tossing 3.0 scoreless innings in relief.

Austin College and the Gents will square off again tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Austin College athletic teams participate as a member of the NCAA Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.