STRIDING INTO NCAA PLAY: Sophomore left fielder Carson Livesay and the Centenary Gents open play Friday in the NCAA Tournament at East Texas Baptist. (Photo courtesy Centenary Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
Centenary learned where it will line up in the NCAA Division III baseball playoffs Monday and the destination is East Texas Baptist in nearby Marshall, Texas.
The Gents (23-18), winners of the SCAC Tournament championship, will face ETBU (36-8) Friday at 11 a.m. in the Marshall Texas Regional. Joining the Gents and Tigers are Claremont-M-S (30-13) and Concordia (27-16) in the regional at Tiger Ballpark at Woods Field. Claremont and Concordia will follow at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
This is the second consecutive year Marshall will host a regional. ETBU is making its second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament after last year’s run to the National Championship Tournament where the Tigers ended last season as one of the top three teams in the nation.
The NCAA Championship berth is the Gents’ third all-time after initially appearing in the 2017 event in Tyler, Texas. They were 1-2 that season. In the 2022 tournament, they went 0-3 against LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia.
The NCAA Tournament starts with 16 regionals at school sites with each winner playing in a super-regional best-of-of-three series to determine the eight teams who will advance to the D-III World Series to be played at Classic Auto Group Park, Eastlake, Ohio.
Marshall Texas Regional schedule
Friday, May 17
Game 1 – #1 ETBU vs. #4 Centenary, 11 a.m.
Game 2 – #2 Claremont-MS vs. #3 Concordia, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, May 18
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 11 a.m.
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 6 p.m. Sunday, May 19
The NAIA Tournament baseball action slated to begin Monday at LSUS will continue today across the Red River at Bossier Parish Community College.
Inclement weather halted the first of three games scheduled for Monday. Talladega (Ala.) held a 12-7 lead over Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.) in the bottom of the seventh when play was suspended and could not be resumed.
That left two more first-round games unplayed: the Top 25 matchup between No. 18 Concordia (Neb.) and 20th-ranked Kansas Wesleyan, and the No. 4 host team against the winner of the first contest.
Blue Mountain Christian’s social media reported the first game would resume at 11 a.m. today at BPCC, where it said the remainder of the Shreveport Bracket would be contested. There was no confirmation of that on the LSUS website or its Tournament Central link, or the NAIA website, or the LSUS baseball X-account, which last posted about 5 p.m. Monday that the Pilots’ opening game was targeted for 9 o’clock Monday night.
(Update: play today does begin at 11 with resumption of the first game. Game 2 is targeted for a 12:30 start with LSUS aiming to play the Game 1 winner at 3:30. The regional will be played at BPCC, according to an NAIA post on X.)
Both LSUS and BPCC have artificial turf infield surfaces, but Pilots Field is in the lowlands not far from the Red River and drainage in the outfield and other areas was apparently problematic.
The regional is a double-elimination competition and is slated to wrap up Thursday.
HOLDING HIS OWN: LSU’s Luke Holman has been the ace of the Tigers’ staff this spring and shined Saturday against his former team, Alabama, in the only win of the weekend for the defending national champions. (Photo courtesy LSU Athletics)
By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two weeks from today when defending national champion LSU likely misses getting an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 2011 – barring a miracle comeback in its last regular season SEC series and in the conference tourney – the Tigers have no room for argument.
Now 33-20 overall and 10-17 in league play, LSU third-year head coach Jay Johnson will wistfully look back and pinpoint three SEC losses it choked away in the late innings including two with the Tigers needing one out to secure the victory.
Alabama’s 4-3 victory over LSU here Sunday won the series for the Crimson Tide (32-19, 12-15). The Tigers were dominated by a Bama Game 3 starting pitcher who entered the day with the fourth-worst earned run average on the Tide’s staff.
But knowing a Game 3 SEC series loss was likely for LSU – the Tigers are now 1-8 in such games this season because it has no reliable series finale starting pitcher– Johnson’s crew got behind the 8-ball in this series and a chance at an NCAA invite when it lost 8-7 in Friday’s opener.
The Tigers blew a 7-3 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning. Alabama scored just 15 runs in the series, but 5 came in the last two innings of Game 1.
The Tide scored 3 runs on 3 hits – all on 2-strike pitches – in the eighth inning. The first two hits, including a 2-run homer by Alabama’s TJ McCants on a 0-2 pitch, came off LSU reliever Christian Little.
Griffin Herring, LSU’s best reliever in SEC play, entered the game and struck out two straight batters before giving up an RBI single that cut LSU’s lead to 7-6.
Herring settled, retiring the next three batters including the first two in the ninth on strikeouts. Then, the wheels came off against the Tide’s 4-5 and 6-hole hitters.
Herring walked Kade Snell on a 3-2 pitch, McCants walked on four straight balls and then hit Mac Guscette with his first pitch.
With available closers in the bullpen such as Gavin Guidry, Johnson stuck with Herring as Alabama’s William Hamiter stepped into the batter’s box.
Hamiter hit a 2-2 pitch nubber in front of the plate. LSU catcher Alex Milazzo, barehanded the ball and fired a throw that pulled Tigers’ first baseman Jared Jones into the path of Hamiter as he crossed first base.
Jones dropped the ball and Cade and McCants scored for the walk-off win.
Johnson asked for a replay review citing runner interference. But it was obvious Hamiter was clearly in the base path and Milazzo’s throw pulled Jones into Hamiter’s right of way.
“I don’t even know if they looked at it with how quick the review was,” Johnson said. “Pretty important play to have less than a 15-second review on.”
LSU got its best pitching of the series in its 6-3 Game 2 win.
Tigers’ starter and former Alabama staff ace Luke Holman held the Crimson Tide to 2 runs on 4 hits in 5.2 innings with 4 walks and 2 strikeouts.
Relievers Nate Ackenhausen and Gavin Guidry combined to allow 1 run on 2 hits with 2 walks and two strikeouts in the final 3.1 innings, allowing. Guidry got the save after working 2 scoreless innings with no hits, 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
“Luke is a superstar,” Johnson said. “There’s not a more put-together pitcher and person in college baseball than him,” Johnson said of Holman. “A lot of that has to do with his poise and his mindset.”
Knowing its Game 3 pitching lineup would feature stringing together several bottom-ring relievers, LSU needed to get off to a good start.
It didn’t happen. Alabama took a 4-0 lead after three innings, scoring 3 runs off LSU starter Sam Dutton in the second inning and another run in the third off Aiden Moffett.
LSU’s last four relievers – Justin Loer, Fidel Uklloa, DJ Primeaux and Little – shut out Alabama on 2 hits in the final 4 innings.
But the Tigers’ bats were chilled by Alabama junior starter Ben Hess, who entered the day with a 6.89 ERA. Hess tied a career-high 10 strikeouts, holding LSU to a run and three hits in a career-best 6.2 innings.
LSU scored 2 runs in the eighth but failed to score the tying run after having Tommy White on third base with just one out. True freshman Ashton Larson struck out and fellow true freshman Steven Milam lined out to shortstop to kill the rally.
The Tigers, who haven’t swept any opponent this season, now need a sweep of Ole Miss (27-24, 11-16) in the final regular season SEC series starting Thursday in Alex Box Stadium.
Since 1999, 10 of 26 (38 percent) of SEC teams that finished league play with 13 wins earned an NCAA tourney at-large bid. Just 3 of 17 teams (18 percent) that finished with 12 conference wins got NCAA postseason invites.
The Rebels are coming off a home series victory over No. 3 Texas A&M, winning Games 1 and 2 by scores of 4-3 and 10-2 respectively.
Ole Miss has improved its RPI from No. 28 to No. 25 while LSU didn’t move off No. 35 after losing to Alabama, which edged from No. 12 to 11 in RPI.
The artificial turf at Pilot Field is a vital asset as five teams – three in the Top 25 — hope to begin play today in the Shreveport Bracket of the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.
Sunday’s heavy rain and the chance for more early today and lesser amounts during the afternoon figure to stall the start of play in the double-elimination competition targeted to wrap up Thursday. The playing surface provides some hope for a quicker bounce-back from the precipitation.
LSUS (42-9), ranked fourth nationally, is scheduled for its first action at 6 this evening against the winner of the day’s opening game between the regional’s fourth and fifth seeds. Talladega (Ala.), with a 37-15 record, is No. 4 and slated to play at 11 a.m. against No. 5 Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.), owning a 31-21 mark.
Second-seeded Concordia (Neb.) brings a 41-13 record against No. 3 Kansas Wesleyan (45-10) in a 2:30 matchup. Concordia was ranked 18th and Kansas Wesleyan 20th in the final regular-season NAIA Top 25 poll.
SCAC DOGPILE: A week ago today, the Centenary baseball team celebrated a remarkable comeback through the elimination bracket to capture the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament and earn an NCAA Tournament berth. (Photo by PRESTON LUDWICK, Centenary Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament champion Centenary baseball team will learn its immediate future this morning when the NCAA Division III Selection Show on NCAA.com reveals regional pairings to begin Friday.
The Gents are gathering at Walk On’s on Youree Drive for the 11 a.m. show.
The tournament starts with 16 regionals at school sites with each winner playing a super-regional best of three series to determine the eight teams who will advance to the D-III World Series in a suburb of Cleveland.
The playoff field consists of 60 teams. Regionals will be staged Friday-Sunday at 14 sites with four teams (double elimination), along with two regionals with two teams in short series.
Super regionals are May 24-25 with the 16 teams colliding in eight best-of-three series.
Centenary (23-18) was the second seed in the SCAC Tournament and charged through the field, finishing with a 9-5 victory in the championship game over Texas Lutheran. The Gents won three straight elimination round games to force a winner-take-all contest last Monday.
It’s the second NCAA Regional appearance in three seasons for Centenary, which won the SCAC Tournament in 2022. The Gents also took that title in 2017 to advance to NCAA postseason play for the first time under successful veteran coach Mike Diaz, in his 14th season in charge and 20th overall season on Kings Highway.
BRINGING HEAT: Vanderbilt transfer Christian Little has stepped forward as one of the stoppers in LSU’s bullpen as the Tigers try to mount a late surge into the NCAA Tournament. (Photo by SIERRA BEAULIEU, LSU Athletics)
By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
TUSCALOOSA. Ala. – Ask LSU’s baseball players where the Tigers rank in RPI (rating percentage index) or how RPI works in the NCAA tournament at-large invitation process.
None of them can likely tell you.
That’s how it is and has been for LSU, which has lost its first five league series and now has won its last three including last weekend vs. No. 1 Texas A&M.
For the record, the defending national champion Tigers’ (32-18 9-15 SEC) RPI is No. 35, heading into the start of tonight’s series here vs. Alabama (30-18, 10-14 SEC), which has an RPI of 12.
With six remaining regular SEC games including next week’s final regular season series at home vs. Ole Miss, all LSU head coach Jay Johnson’s squad knows is “just win baby.”
“We’re in a spot where let’s just play hard no matter what the score is,” LSU catcher Brady Neal said. “We’re just playing ball against nameless and faceless teams, just going out there with nothing to lose, competing our butts off and making guys have to beat us.”
It’s the only approach the Tigers could have taken after a top-heavy conference schedule loaded with ranked teams just about sank their season.
At one point, LSU was equally deficient in every phase. It couldn’t hang its hat on its hitting, starting and relief pitching and fielding.
Yet when LSU’s pitching from Game 1 and Game 2 weekend series starters Gage Jump and Luke Holman finally steadied starting in the second half of league play and new effective relievers bloomed like Griffin Herring and Christian Little, the Tigers stopped the bleeding.
In LSU’s consecutive series wins over Missouri, Auburn and Texas A&M, Jump had a combined 1.86 ERA with 4 runs allowed in 19.1 innings and a 24 to 3 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.
On the backend as a reliever, Little has an ERA of 1.23 in his last three SEC appearances, striking out 12 and walking 1.
“I just think they’re seeing the difference in us at our best versus where we were and that should develop a lot of confidence,” Johnson said of his team that has won 9 of its last 12 games. “We have two of the best starting pitchers that can match up against anybody and some emerging bullpen pieces.
“And we have a lineup that shows a little more aptitude to get guys on base and score against good pitching.”
The consensus is LSU needs to win 4 of its last 6 SEC games (and likely at least one win in the conference tournament) to have a chance of getting an NCAA at-large tourney invite.
Usually, SEC teams need 13 league wins and a top 30 RPI or 14 conference wins with a top 40 to make the NCAA tourney field.
LSU (32-18 9-15 SEC) at Alabama (30-18, 10-14 SEC)
UA – Jr. RH Ben Hess (3-04, 6.89 ERA, 48.1 IP, 29 BB, 79 SO)
LSU-ALABAMA SERIES: Alabama leads the all-time series with LSU, 200-180-3, and the first meeting between the squads occurred in 1906. . .LSU has won 14 of the 16 SEC regular-season series versus the Tide since 2007, including a three-game series sweep last season in Baton Rouge.
A LOOK AT LSU: LSU catcher Brady Neal is batting .455 (5-for-11) in his last three games with a double, 3 homers, 7 RBI and 5 runs scored. . .First baseman Jared Jones has 2 doubles, 2 homers, 4 RBI and 4 runs in his last five games. . .Left fielder Josh Pearson has 3 doubles, 4 RBI and 5 runs scored in his last five games. . .Third baseman Tommy White has 1 double, 2 homers, 8 RBI and 6 runs in his last five games.
A LOOK AT ALABAMA: The Crimson Tide are No. 3 in the SEC in team batting average hitting .308. . .The Alabama pitching staff is No. 10 in the league with a 5.58 ERA. . .Infielder Gage Miller is hitting .383 this season with 10 doubles, 2 triples, 18 homers and 48 RBI.
MILESTONE MOMENTS: Centenary supporters and community leaders gathered Thursday evening at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the college’s new football-centric athletic facilities. (Journal photo by DOUG IRELAND)
By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Centenary football coach Byron Dawson is a big man, with a big smile. It was especially big Thursday evening, beaming as he stood in front of a crowd eagerly awaiting the moment the college’s president, Dr. Christopher Holoman, would cut the ribbon to officially dedicate the Gents’ new football-centric athletic facilities.
Two years ago, Dawson was a man entrusted with a dream, the idea being the rebirth of a long dormant football program at a college with an enrollment well under 1,000 students. Thursday, the Gents’ new fieldhouse – featuring locker rooms for football, softball and women’s soccer and coaches offices, overlooking the completed artificial turf practice field adjacent to the soccer/football field – was opened for supporters to see.
A football program that adopted the mantra “now we go” to signal the early stages of developing the program passed a milestone with Thursday’s ceremony.
Said Dawson: “We’re transitioning from ‘now we go’ to ‘now we grow.’ Now we grow our roster. Now we grow as a team. Now we grow new facilities and a new stadium. Now we grow our student enrollment. Great things are happening here.”
The timing of the ribbon-cutting was coincidental, Holoman told the crowd, but appropriate.
“It is two and a half years ago to (Friday), that we stood here and announced the return of football to Centenary College. There were some skeptics, I think it’s fair to say. But here we are. An amazing coaching hire, 70-plus student-athletes, $2 million raised, an 8-1 record in a preliminary season – I believe we’re proving the skeptics wrong,” said the president.
With an audience that included Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux and several other public officials and community leaders, it was clear by bringing back football, even at the NCAA Division III level, Centenary has strengthened its local connections.
The Gents showed off a 4,700-square foot fieldhouse that looks out at a 76,500-square foot practice field. After playing a nine-game exhibition season last fall, Centenary will officially kick off football with a 10-game slate including six home contests, opening on Sept. 7 just behind the Gold Dome against Hendrix (Ark.).
“This is just a testament of the hard work and commitment, what’s already been put in the ground. Progress is a process,” said Dawson. “We’ve got good seed in the ground and we’re able to see some harvest. Coming from our season, we only lost one game. Building off that, having a great recruiting class of guys coming in this fall, and now to have these facilities complete.
“That kind of progression gives you momentum, and we just want to ride that wave and use it to take us to new heights.”
Dawson, who played at LSU and was an assistant coach at Tulane along with winning a state title as head coach at Evangel Christian Academy, where he was an All-America defensive lineman, has seen some of the finest facilities in college football. What stands out about his new digs?
“Whenever you can have two turf fields right beside each other, even some Division I programs don’t have that. To have a coach’s office overlooking those fields, to be in close proximity where you don’t have to walk across campus to get to the athletic facilities – and to be centered right in the middle of Shreveport, it’s a great location,” he said. “Being Louisiana’s oldest and first college (founded 1825), we take pride in that.”
The timing was ideal for the ceremony, as Holoman pointed out, and Dawson amplified in his remarks to the crowd.
“We theme our days in our football program, and this is ‘Thankful Thursday.’ Thinking of all the people who made this day possible, we’re so grateful,” he said.
“Shreveport-Bossier, we have college football. We can’t wait to play.”
FIRED UP: LSUS sophomore all-conference pitcher Draven Zeigler was pumped off coming off the mound during a recent Pilots’ game. (Photo courtesy LSUS Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
The LSUS Pilots had another strong spring on the diamond, and will again be hosting an NAIA Opening Round regional pod beginning Monday as a result.
The fourth-ranked Pilots, 42-9, welcome four visiting teams to Shreveport beginning Monday in the double-elimination bracket wrapping up Thursday. It’s the third straight season LSUS is hosting and the program’s 20th consecutive NAIA Tournament berth.
Other teams in the Shreveport bracket are No. 2 Concordia (Neb.), third-seeded Kansas Wesleyan, Talladega (Ala.) at No. 4 and fifth-seeded Blue Mountain Christian (Miss.).
The NAIA released its national tournament bracket with 16 regional pods Thursday afternoon.
LSUS will open Monday at 6 p.m. at Pilot Field against the winner of the 4-5 game between Talladega and Blue Mountain Christian. If the Pilots prevail, they’ll play a second-round game Tuesday at 2:30.
The Pilots won their third straight Red River Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 28-2 league mark, but faltered last weekend in the conference tournament at Sterlington, dropping a pair of games to Louisiana Christian, which went on to win the event. It was the first time in 15 years LSUS lost to the Wildcats.
LSUS is hoping for its third NAIA World Series trip in the last four years. The Pilots fell just short last year after back-to-back trips to Lewiston, Idaho, in 2021 and 2022.
ROUND TRIPPER: LSUS senior outfielder Jose Aquino was a second-team all-conference choice after belting a team-best 9 home runs and collecting 35 RBI. (Photo courtesy LSUS Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
An uncharacteristic exit from the Red River Athletic Conference baseball tournament last weekend didn’t create any doubt LSUS had postseason legs.
That was reinforced Wednesday when in the last regular-season NAIA Top 25 poll, the Pilots (42-9) did not slip at all, retaining their No. 4 national ranking.
Today at 4, the NAIA will unveil its baseball championship bracket and the Pilots anticipate being a No. 1 seed and hosting an Opening Round event next week, beginning Monday.
If that plays out, LSUS will begin its pursuit of another NAIA World Series berth with a 6 p.m. game Monday evening in a double-elimination bracket of a four-team regional pod to wrap up next Thursday.
The Pilots, who rolled to the RRAC championship with a 28-2 league mark, dropped a pair of contests in the conference tournament to eventual champion Louisiana Christian. The Wildcats entered as the league’s No. 5 seed but knocked off the Pilots 5-2 in a second-round game Friday, and then eliminated them Saturday with a 12-inning 7-6 upset.
LSUS won three times, including an opening 17-1 romp over Jarvis Christian and a 21-4 blowout of Our Lady of the Lake.
The program filled 13 slots on the All-RRAC Team announced last week, including seven first-team selections. For a third straight season, LSUS swept the Player of the Year (junior second baseman Vantrel Reed) and Pitcher of the Year (junior Isaac Rohde) honors.
After rolling to their third consecutive regular-season RRAC crown, the Pilots added junior third baseman Josh Gibson, junior shortstop Jose Sallorin, senior outfielder Trevor Burkhard, and sophomore pitchers Draven Zeigler and David Hankins to the all-conference first team with Reed and Rohde.
Gibson leads the Pilots with a .421 batting average. Reed is hitting .393 with 8 home runs and 58 RBI, both team highs.
Rohde owns a 1.34 ERA and a 10-2 record with 115 strikeouts in 93 innings.
Earning second-team honors were junior first baseman Angel Rodriguez, junior catcher Diego Aragon, senior outfielder Jose Aquino, junior outfielder Ryan Davenport, junior pitcher Chase Guitreau and senior pitcher A.J. Fritz.
Gold Glove winners were Aragon, Davenport and Sallorin. Earning a spot on the league’s “Champions of Character Team” was senior relief pitcher Josh Fortenberry.
By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
A new era for intercollegiate athletics at Centenary gets ushered in this afternoon as the Gents show off their recently-completed facilities enabling the relaunch of a long-dormant football program.
Centenary Athletics will hold a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate the completion of its new fieldhouse and football practice field today from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
The celebration includes a reception and student-athlete-led tours of the new facilities. The event is free and open to the public.
Centenary president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman, athletic director David Orr, and head football coach Byron Dawson will speak during a brief ceremony.
The new 4,700-square foot fieldhouse houses locker rooms for Centenary’s football team along with its women’s soccer and softball teams. The facility, which also includes coaches’ offices, looks out over the new 76,500-square foot turf practice field.
Adjacent to the Gold Dome and to Mayo Field, home of Centenary’s football, lacrosse, and soccer teams, the field house and practice field are the latest addition to Centenary’s revitalized athletic complex located on Kings Highway.
The ribbon-cutting event will also serve as the official re-launch of Centenary’s “C Club,” Centenary’s athletic booster club. C Club supporters can choose to allocate funds to specific athletic teams or to the athletic department as a whole, and can choose from a variety of individual and corporate affiliation levels. For more information, check the GoCentenary.com website.
LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey made several visits to Bossier City in her successful recruitment of Parkway star Mikaylah Williams. She’ll bring Williams home next season.
Williams, the 2023-24 SEC Freshman of the Year in her debut season with the Tigers, will be a focal figure when LSU tips off against Grambling on Sunday, Dec. 8 at Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City. Tickets will go on sale this summer, according to a joint announcement Tuesday by the schools and the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission.
“We could not be more excited to bring LSU to Mikaylah’s hometown of Bossier City in December to play Grambling State,” Mulkey said.
Williams put together one of the best freshman seasons in LSU history last year, averaging 14.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, becoming just the fifth LSU player to rank inside the top-10 in points and assists as a freshman in program history. She scored 20 or more points in seven games, including a 42-point performance against Kent State, the most ever recorded by an LSU freshman dating back to 1982.
At Parkway, Williams was a two-time Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year and Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association “Miss Basketball” who led Parkway to the 2022 state finals and the 2023 state championship as a McDonald’s All-American. She also represented her country on the world stage and is a two-time defending Team USA 3×3 Player of the Year with multiple gold medals.
“She has a lot of fans in north Louisiana that have been following her for a long time and will want to come and see her along with the rest of our team,” said Mulkey. “Furthermore, it is always great to be able to bring LSU to different parts of the state because there are people that bleed purple and gold all across Louisiana.”
Mulkey, who has claimed four national championships as a head coach including the 2023 title at LSU, will be in her fourth season in Baton Rouge. She took Williams and the Tigers to the Elite Eight last season.
Mulkey is one of Louisiana Tech’s greatest sports figures, immortalized with a statue last September outside the north end zone of Aillet Stadium at the Sarah and A.L. Williams Champions Plaza. She was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in its 2020 class while at Baylor, where she won NCAA championships in 2005, 2012 and 2019.
The Tickfaw native and four-time All-Stater and state champion at Hammond High played point guard at Tech, helping the Lady Techsters to two national championships (1981 AIAW, 1982 NCAA). She began her coaching career under Leon Barmore at Tech and helped the program reach four Final Fours, winning the 1988 NCAA title over Auburn.
Mulkey is the only person in NCAA basketball history to win national championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach. She played on the gold-medal winning 1984 USA Olympic team coached by Pat Summit. She was the youngest-ever (29) inductee in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, enshrined in 1990.
Mulkey’s counterpart at Grambling, Courtney Simmons, quickly made her mark as a head coach last season, leading GSU to 23-10 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It marked the first time GSU eclipsed 20 wins in a season since 2002-03. The fast-paced Tigers reached the SWAC Tournament semifinals and earned a berth in the WNIT, defeating Oral Roberts in the opening round. Last season, Grambling also beat Arizona State 70-67, GSU’s first win over a Power Five opponent since 2017.
GSU’s leading scorer, Kahia Warmsley, is a Shreveport native and a graduate of Mansfield High. She averaged 10.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals las season. While at Mansfield High, she led the Wolverines to back-to-back state title appearances capturing the state title as a junior. She was also named the Most Outstanding Player on the Class 4A All-State team and was a four-time all-district selection and a two-time all-state selection.
Russ Potts Productions Inc. partnered with the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission and its sports director, Sara Nelms, to broker the deal bringing LSU and Grambling together in Bossier City.
LSU and Grambling last played over a decade ago, a 90-59 win by the Tigers in Baton Rouge during the 2012-13 season. LSU owns a 4-0 all-time record in the series.
STRETCHING IT OUT: Northwestern State left fielder Balin Valentine lays out for a catch in the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s game, as the Demons nursed a 5-3 lead over LSU. (Photo by JAMES STANFIELD, NSU Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
BATON ROUGE – Jared Jones’ two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning made the difference for LSU in its last non-conference game of the season, lifting the Tigers to a 6-5 triumph Tuesday night over visiting Northwestern State.
It was the Demons’ inability to break through early that ultimately proved the toughest hurdle for NSU to overcome at Alex Box Stadium.
“We had some chances earlier in the ballgame with runners in scoring position, and we gave away some at-bats where I feel like we could have had more than five runs,” first-year Northwestern head coach Chris Bertrand said. “The runs at the end were a double and a home run, which is baseball, but within the first four runs, there were some mistakes in which we felt were some self-inflicted wounds and some gift wraps. You have to be excited – and we are – with the way our guys fought and competed and played.”
The Tigers (32-19) scored the game’s last three runs to rally, getting the decisive swing on Jones’ 21st homer of the year in the bottom of the eighth. As LSU chases an at-large NCAA Tournament berth, dropping Tuesday night’s contest was not feasible, he said.
“The message tonight was this is a must-win game,” said Jones, who credited his coaches with helping set up his game-winner. “The scouting report said in his (NSU reliever Caleb Bunch) last outing he threw 51 pitches and only 3 fastballs. I was lucky enough to get a slider I could handle, and do some damage with it.”
After falling behind 2-0 on Brady Neal’s two-run home run in the second inning, the Demons (19-29) responded and took the lead with a three-run fourth inning that featured RBI hits from Hayden Knotts and Reese Lipoma and a tie-breaking sacrifice fly from Samuel Stephenson.
Northwestern maintained that momentum after Tyler Nichol wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam by getting Tommy White to line out to second base in the fourth.
The Demons kept that edge and extended their lead in the following inning by taking advantage of a Fidell Ulloa wild pitch with a Colin Rains two-run single. Rains’ hit was part of the Haughton freshman’s second straight three-hit game.
Since driving in the go-ahead run in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Lamar, Rains is 7-for-9 with three RBIs.
“As we continue to talk about the growth of this team, what we talk about is gaining valuable experience,” Bertrand said. “What you’re seeing now is the fruits of Colin’s labor in how he is one of the hardest-working guys we have. That’s the thing – hitters hit and workers work. You’re seeing the fruits of labor mixed with a level of experience gained. That’s why he’s having success. The game of baseball is rewarding him for going about his business the right way.”
The NSU bullpen and its defense had its moments to keep the Demons on top for much of Tuesday night’s game.
Both Conner Bivins in the fifth and Alejandro Marquez in the seventh stranded inherited runners to keep the Demons on top as LSU began to chip away at its three-run deficit.
Bivins also worked a scoreless sixth inning that was highlighted by Balin Valentine’s diving catch that robbed Jared Jones of a potential RBI double to left field.
“The guy made a great play,” said Jones. “You just tip your cap. I did everything I could to put a good swing on a good pitch.”
While LSU (32-18) chipped away at the lead, right-hander Gavin Guidry (2-0) worked four shutout innings of relief to keep the Tigers in striking distance. He gave up only one hit after the visitors rapped nine in the first five innings.
“I’m so thankful for Gavin Guidry going four innings,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I’m so proud of our team. We’ve been playing playoff baseball for a month, and they’ve just stayed with it. This was a game we couldn’t win a month ago … just the poise. Sometimes you need competitors. I called them up at the end of the fourth inning and said, ‘We have to win.’ And I never do that.
“That’s a good team. We’ve played a lot of teams in that league, and they’re right in the middle of the pack,” he said. “They do a great job coaching. They’re getting the most out of what they have … they played great tonight, made us have to stay with it to win. We played like a winning team, and deserved to win in a really good baseball game.”
There was postgame pride in the Demon dugout, too.
“The message we delivered to the team was how proud we were of the fight and the great things we did do against an unbelievable baseball team,” Bertrand said. “We got 10 hits. For the most part, we were able to suppress their offense from big swings. There are a couple of things we need to clean up.”
The Demons return to action Friday when they host New Orleans in the opener of NSU’s final Southland Conference series of the season. The Tigers open an SEC series at Alabama Friday.
By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
There’s postseason excitement on Kings Highway.
You probably noticed Centenary’s baseball team won the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Monday and is awaiting its NCAA Regional assignment. Action begins May 17.
There’s also NCAA action ahead next week for Centenary’s top golfer, senior Andrew Bennett.
BASEBALL: The NCAA Division III selection show is next Monday at 11 a.m. CDT as Centenary will find out its opponents and destination. The tournament starts with 16 regionals at school sites with each survivor playing a super-regional best of three series to determine the eight teams who will advance to the D-III World Series to be held at Classic Auto Group Park, Eastlake, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.
Nine Diamond Gents were named to the all-conference team that was released on Friday, highlighted by first baseman Alex Miller being named the Freshman of the Year. Miller, also second team all-SCAC, is the third consecutive Centenary player, and fifth all-time, to win SCAC Freshman of the Year honors, following his current teammates Aidan Reichek (2023) and Tyler Herrera (2022) in addition to current assistant coach Chris Zapata (2015) and Aaron Quintanilla (2014).
Miller, Herrera, senior rightfielder Austyn Benoit, freshman third baseman Gage Morris, freshman designated hitter Walker Wicklund, sophomore leftfielder Carson Livesay, and sophomore left-handed pitcher Cody Myers were Gents named to the all-tournament Team.
GOLF: Bennett has been selected to play in the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships May 14-17 at Boulder Creek Golf Club, in Boulder City, Nevada, near Las Vegas.
Bennett, who claimed the individual title at last month’s Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Whitney, Texas, is one of six individuals selected to participate in the championships. Bennett is the first Centenary men’s golfer to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the Gents’ Division III era (2013-present).
Bennett finished nine shots ahead of Jacob Mason of Trinity (+5 – 221) at the conference championships as he claimed his second-career victory after he won the individual title at the UMHB Men’s Invitational this past fall. He earned First-Team All-SCAC honors last month.
Bennett entered the final round in third place and one shot behind 36-hole leader Jacob Mason of Trinity. He fired identical 1-under par 71 rounds in rounds one and two at the par-72, 6,918-yard course. He posted under par scores (71, 71 and 70) in each of his three rounds, becoming just the third player in conference championship history to do so, and his three-day total of 212 is tied for the third-lowest finishing score in conference history.
Bennett, who tied for 19th at the conference championships in 2022, now has two individual wins, three top-five finishes, and a top-15 finish this season.
SOFTBALL: Senior rightfielder Mackenzie Cox was named to the SCAC All-Tournament Team after an impressive performance in a pair of games this past weekend at Ed Kruse Stadium – Morck Softball Field on the campus of Texas Lutheran University.
Cox went 5-8 in her two tournament games with three RBI, a double, a run scored, and a stolen base. She was named All-SCAC on Friday, earning first-team all-conference honors for the fourth-straight season. Cox was named to the All-Tournament team for the second time, added to a 2022 honor.
Cox was one of the top players this season in the conference and country as she led the SCAC in hits (61), runs (48), and triples, was second in total bases and walks, and was third in batting average (.466), OBP (.541), and slugging (.618). She ranked in the top 20 in NCAA Division III in hits and top 50 in batting average.
Cox ranked second in the country in stolen bases (49) and was only caught four times. She posted 21 multi-hit games with a season-best 15-game hitting streak.
The Ladies fell 9-3 to the Southwestern Pirates in their tournament opener last Friday and were eliminated on Saturday, 3-2, by St. Thomas.
Centenary (13-27, 8-13 SCAC) finished fifth in the league, just where the preseason coaches’ poll had slotted them. Cox headed seven Ladies to earn all-conference honors.
LAGNIAPPE: LeTourneau University, located in Longview, has accepted an offer of membership into the SCAC and will join for the 2025-26 academic year.
THRILL OF VICTORY: Centenary baseball players celebrate winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament championship Monday. (Photo by PRESTON LUDWICK, Centenary Athletics)
By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
CLEBURNE, Texas – The Centenary baseball team, after fighting its way through the loser’s bracket in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, is headed to the Division III NCAA Tournament.
The No. 2 seed Gentlemen defeated the No. 4 seed Texas Lutheran Bulldogs 9-5 on Monday afternoon to win the 2024 SCAC championship at La Moderna Field.
The Diamond Gents (23-18) completed their run through the loser’s bracket by winning three-straight elimination games over three days to capture their second tournament title in three years after claiming the title in 2022. Texas Lutheran finishes its season at 25-17.
Centenary outlasted TLU 10-8 in 11 innings on Sunday to force Monday’s decisive winner-take-all game.
Centenary has enjoyed steady success in the event, winning previous titles in 2022 and in 2017 and being the runner-up three times (2013, 2015, 2018).
The Diamond Gents opened the weekend with a 6-4 victory on Friday over Southwestern, then fell 5-2 to TLU on Saturday. Centenary responded with a 7-6 win over No. 1 seed and regular-season champion Trinity that eliminated the Tigers before the consecutive wins over the Bulldogs.
The NCAA Tournament selection show is next Monday, May 13 at 11 a.m. CT when Centenary will find out its opponents and destination. The tournament starts with 16 regionals at school sites with each winner playing a super regional best-of-three series to determine the eight teams advancing to the D-III World Series at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio. This suburb of Cleveland will be the seventh site to host the D-III World Series since the tournament started in 1976.
The playoff field consists of 60 teams. Forty-one (39) Pool A bids will be awarded to conference automatic qualifiers through May 15. On May 16, the national selection committee decides who gets the two Pool B and 19 Pool C at-large bids.
Everybody who follows college baseball knows about the team in our state that is still battling to make it into the postseason. There have been some tough losses, even a few non-conference losses, but at this point in the season there is plenty that can still go right.
Their coach will tell you that everything his team wants is still right in front in them.
If you believe those who prognosticate such things, they are right in the middle of the NCAA Tournament discussion. Every game from here on in is important if they want to keep playing after the conference tournament is done.
Of course, that team is … Louisiana Tech?
While you weren’t looking, the Bulldogs are now being penciled in – perhaps lightly with a #1 Faber-Castell – as a potential at-large team.
That is, of course, if the Bulldogs don’t win the Conference USA tournament, which is another path in. If you need to find the ‘Dogs, look at the top of the league standings, where Tech leads with a 11-4 record.
Looming out there is a huge series against second-place Western Kentucky next week. To stay alone in first, Tech will need to win all three at New Mexico State this weekend. If the Bulldogs win two out of three, they’ll share the lead with WKU, which is playing out of conference this week.
But the biggest question is whether Conference USA will be a multiple-bid league. Three years ago, the league got four into the postseason, with Tech hosting a regional. But as is the case about every 20 minutes, conference re-alignment has altered the landscape.
In 2021, C-USA was the sixth-ranked conference; this year, it currently sits at No. 7, which is not that big of a difference.
Let’s do a deeper dive into this and if this gets too deep into the analytical weeds, feel free to abort the mission. Tech’s RPI is currently No. 42 but its Projected RPI is No. 25 (ahead of schools such as Florida, TCU and, yes, two other schools that have “Louisiana” in their names).
That’s one of the biggest projected jumps by any school in the country, so somebody’s computer believes in the Bulldogs.
All well and good for those who love to crunch numbers. Tech coach Lane Burroughs is most definitely not one of those people.
“I’m being honest with you; I never look at that,” Burroughs says. “All you can do is the play the games in front of you. If the season ended today, I think there would be no doubt we deserve to being the tournament. But there’s a lot of baseball to be played.”
Tech got off to a great start (winning its first 12 games) but recently as six weeks ago, Tech’s RPI was in triple digits. You want to know what showed up to turn it around?
Food.
Two weeks ago, the Bulldogs were playing at Dallas Baptist, a Top 25 team that is sure to be a postseason participant, and won the first game by getting to DBU pitcher Ryan Johnson, a Top 50 MLB Draft prospect. But the Saturday game was washed out, forcing a doubleheader on Sunday. Tech lost the first game of the double dip and Burroughs said the team looked a little lethargic in the second game.
“The people who were supposed to bring our food (for between games) got lost,” Burroughs says. “We were already playing the (second) game when they arrived and our guys were literally shoving sandwiches and potato chips down their throats when they came to the dugout. Maybe that worked, because we got a burst of energy.”
Tech scored three in the third inning and three in the fifth and went on to win 6-1. Beating Dallas Baptist two out of three certainly got some folks’ attention.
“We’ve done it all with this group,” Burroughs says. “We chewed them out, we’ve gotten out of their way, but we are an older, more mature group.”
The Bulldogs were an NCAA Tournament team in ’21 and ’22, but things went wrong all season long a year ago, both on and off the field.
The difference? Easy. “The key to all of it is that our starting pitching has gotten better each week,” Burroughs said. “And with the guys we’ve got at the back end of the ball game (relievers Ethan Bates and Sam Broderson), you just don’t get that too often in college baseball.”
At 34-13, Burroughs is content to simply let the season play out and see what happens.
“You can get the pulse of your team and you can feel that they are having fun and they know they’ve got this,” he says. “I say this all the time – I just make out the lineup and get out of the way.”
And make sure the delivery driver doesn’t get lost.
VERY FRESH: Who’s leading LSU in hitting in SEC play? Freshman Ashton Larson, shown after a homer at Missouri. (Photo by Sierra Beaulieu, LSU Athletics)
By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – Lose your first five SEC series in the first half of league play and then spend the second half trying to escape the self-made abyss.
Win a couple of series vs. SEC bottom feeders to resuscitate hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Research the records over the years for the minimum number of wins in SEC play it takes for a team to get into the NCAA tourney field. Check out the NCAA RPI. Figure ways to avoid sitting out the postseason.
Defending national champion LSU (29-17, 7-14) has done all of the above but hasn’t won a series against a ranked team. The Tigers are 4-9 vs. ranked teams and get their last chance to win a series in the regular season over a ranked team when they open a three-game SEC series vs. No. 1 Texas A&M (39-6, 15-6) at 7 p.m. tonight in Alex Box Stadium.
“When you are where we are, it’s a benefit to have a team with as good as a record still left on your schedule,” LSU head coach Jay Johnson said. “I look at it as a great opportunity. It’s great this series is at home. The team has been in a good frame of mind the last two weeks.”
The Tigers’ competition lightened substantially in the last two SEC weekends in winning series 2 games to 1 each at Missouri and home vs. Auburn.
Both teams don’t have anywhere near the talent of the four top-ranked teams (Arkansas, Florida, Vanderbilt and Tennessee) that LSU lost to in the first half of conference play. And now comes Texas A&M, the second No. 1 ranked team (Arkansas was the first) LSU has faced this year.
“We are better, but we still haven’t played our best,” said grad student designated hitter/catcher Hayden Travinski, the former Bossier City Airline star who’s hitting .301 with 14 homers and 43 RBI. “And that’s funny to say coming down the stretch. But I think that with the talent we have when those goals line up and we execute, I think really special things are going to happen.”
It needs to take place this weekend. Time is running out on the Tigers as they attempt to rally for an NCAA Tournament at-large invitation. They have nine remaining SEC games, three each vs. A&M, then at Alabama and finally home against Ole Miss to close the regular season.
The Aggies have won six straight SEC series. They are off their best start overall since 1993 and their best-ever start in league play.
“They are a very complete team, they don’t have a lot of holes,” Johnson said of A&M. “Offensively, they have power. They get free bases and they run the base as well. From the mound, they are very left-handed with some good right-handed relievers sprinkled in.”
Gage Jump and Luke Holman, LSU’s Game 1 and Game 2 starting pitchers, vastly improved the last two weeks. But they’ll have a huge challenge vs. the Aggies, who’ve averaged 10.7 runs in the last 13 games.
The first three hitters in A&M’s batting order – third baseman Gavin Grahovac, center fielder Jace LaViolette and right fielder Braden Montgomery – have combined for 186 of the Aggies’ 403 RBI.
Texas A&M leads the all-time series with LSU 31-28-1. Also, the Aggies lead the series, 16-15, in the 31 games played between the schools since Texas A&M began playing baseball in the SEC in 2013.
A LOOK AT LSU – In his last two starts versus Missouri and Auburn, LSU starting pitcher Gage Jump has allowed only one run on five hits in 14.0 innings with one walk and 20 strikeouts. . .Freshman outfielder Ashton Larson is hitting a team-high .412 (21-for-51) in SEC games this season with six doubles, three homers, nine RBI and 10 runs scored.
A LOOK AT TEXAS A&M – Texas A&M is No. 2 in the SEC with a .315 team batting average, and third in home runs with 102. . .The A&M pitching staff is No. 2 in the SEC with a 3.87 ERA and third in the league in strikeouts pitched with 477 in 391 innings.
Go to a baseball park on any day you choose and you’re almost always going to see something you’ve never seen before.
Like Saturday in a Conference USA game in Ruston when the Sam Houston catcher had apparently tied the game at 5-5 after he hit a ball way, way over the fence in left with two out in the eighth inning and then — was credited with only a triple, and was called out, and saw the inning end …
… because he failed to touch home plate.
A “homer” that would have tied the game ends as a triple with a mythical “ghost runner” forever stranded at third. Louisiana Tech held its 5-4 lead in the ninth to win.
The catcher is Walker Janek, by all accounts one of the best all-around dudes on the Sam Houston team and one of the best players in the college game. A junior, he’s expected to be one of the first catchers chosen in the big-league draft.
But he missed home, the only base with an extra side, five instead of four. The most critical of all your bases.
Doesn’t matter that he just barely missed it, stepping over the plate to celebrate with a waiting teammate, missing the plate’s front edge by, as replays showed, the smallest of margins.
Had he been wearing a size 13 instead of a 12-and-a-half, the game would have been tied.
Happens to the best of us.
Such a rule almost seems to go against the spirit of things. He did, after all, hit it way, WAY out. BUT …
Rules is rules. Brings to mind a phrase so familiar that it’s part of the American lexicon: “You gotta touch all the bases” or “Touch ’em all” or “Let’s touch base on this later.”
If a guy forgets to do one thing, he “forgot to touch all the bases.”
It’s the little things, especially so it seems in baseball.
If Glinda the Good Witch of the North had been there, and had this been Oz and not Ruston, maybe Janek could have tapped his cleats together three times and been given a do-over.
But such is sports. And life. Break a rule, break a heart.
Garrett Belding knows a thing or two about touching home. He played high school ball around Dallas, was a middle infielder for Eastfield College in Mesquite, then came to Tech to be an equipment manager and is now the program’s Director of Player Development, part of a Bulldog support staff second to none.
Why he came back to Tech? Home. Where his daddy grew up and where his granddaddy, Billy “Doc” Belding, served as Tech’s athletic trainer during football’s national championship days of the early 1970s. Lots of tears shed and smiles of precious memories shared last spring when Doc passed away.
Garrett Belding knows about home. He was a little boy in Ruston. Knew his way around campus and around the old Love Field and Aillet Stadium and the field house.
For this stage of his career, he’s home where he knew he belonged.
So it should have come as no surprise that Saturday as Janek rounded third, Belding, leaning on the dugout rail by Tech coach Lane Burroughs, was looking closely when Janek made a little hop over the plate and …
“In that split second,” Belding said, “I’m thinking, ‘He didn’t touch home. For whatever reason, he didn’t touch it.’ And then I start losing my mind…”
And then Burroughs gets in on it and the players erupt and then the home fans start yelling and standing (as if EVERYONE saw it!, and imagine me typing a laughing face here) and Tech made the proper appeal and the home plate umpire, who pictures reveal was looking right at the plate as Janek crossed, signaled “Out.”
Replays proved him right.
“I didn’t expect that, but I saw it,” Belding said, “and then it’s disbelief, and then you start to try to re-convince yourself you saw it, and then I decided that this is the hill I’d die on, because I was SURE he didn’t touch it.”
Within the next half minute, the Bulldogs were successfully appealing the play, and the ump’s fist was in the air. Tech still held the lead. They’d end the weekend series in first place in CUSA.
“I wasn’t really looking for it, and I wouldn’t say I was the only one who saw it, but I know this,” said Belding, a future coach as sure as sunrise. “However long I’m in the game, however long I’m a coach, I will never NOT watch a guy run the bases, and I’ll always make sure they step on home plate. Always.”
Tech’s designated hitter and ace reliever Ethan “Toolbox” Bates (he’s got ’em all, every baseball tool you need, plus he can fix your four-wheeler), got the save that afternoon after pitching a scoreless ninth and leads the college game with 14 this season, and he leads all active players in career saves with 24.
But the unofficial save Saturday, a big one, went to Garrett Belding.
And Sunday afternoon, when Tech leftfielder Adarius Myers hit a three-run walk-off homer for a 12-9 win and the series sweep, you can guess which base his celebrating teammates gave him plenty of room to touch.
HOME(R) BOY: Hayden Travinski smacked his 14th home run of the season Tuesday night as LSU bombed visiting Grambling. (File photo courtesy LSU Athletics)
JOURNAL SPORTS
BATON ROUGE – LSU sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 13 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as the Tigers run-ruled Grambling State 26-2 Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
It was the most runs for LSU in a single inning in 24 years, since a 14-spot against ULM in the 2000 NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. The 13 runs were the sixth-most by the Tigers since they joined the SEC in 1933, and it was the first time LSU tallied a baker’s dozen in one frame.
The Tigers used 24 players, including eight pitchers. Grambling played 23 men, including six pitchers.
Airline High graduate Hayden Travinski clubbed his 14th home run of the season, a 412-foot shot to dead center, and had 3 RBI.
Tommy White had the biggest night for LSU with 5 RBI, including his team-best 18th homer. Three more LSU players went deep.
Thirteen LSU players contributed to the 17-hit attack. Fifteen scored at least once.
“I’d like the hard contact we saw tonight from our hitters, using the whole field,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “I liked the at-bats across the board; I think at one time I counted we were 15-for-18 or 15-for-19 over one stretch.”
Starting pitcher Javen Coleman (3-1), the first of eight pitchers for LSU, was credited with the win, as he blanked Grambling through the first 2.0 innings with one hit, one walk and one strikeout.
Right-hander Fidel Ulloa highlighted LSU’s bullpen effort with a perfect sixth inning, retiring all three Grambling hitters via strikeouts.
“Our pitching is why we’ve won seven of our last nine games,” Johnson said. “We’ve had two bad innings on the mound over the past nine games. We’re looking forward to our pitchers continuing that this weekend.”
With the win, LSU improved to 29-17, while Grambling dropped to 18-23.
The Tigers return Friday at 7 p.m. CT to take on No. 1-ranked Texas A&M in the first game of an SEC series.
By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
The regular season is done for Centenary’s baseball and softball teams, which must win their Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournaments this weekend to reach the NCAA Division III playoffs.
The Gentlemen have the best shot, with a runner-up finish in the regular season.
BASEBALL: The Diamond Gents (19-17, 13-7 SCAC) will begin postseason play on Friday as they have earned the No. 2 seed in this weekend’s conference tournament in Cleburne, Texas. Centenary will face the No. 3 seed Southwestern University Pirates (23-17, 13-8 SCAC) at 4:30 p.m. at La Moderna Field.
Centenary aims to defeat Southwestern for a fourth time in four tries on Friday after the Maroon and White swept the Pirates in a three-game series at home last month. The Diamond Gents lost two of three games at home last weekend to finish the regular season while the Pirates dropped two of three against Texas Lutheran.
Centenary has appeared in the SCAC Championship game five times in its history, winning it twice and finishing as runner-up in 2013, 2015, and 2018. The Diamond Gents need just one more win to record their ninth 20-plus win season since 2013. The tournament is a double-elimination event scheduled to run through Sunday.
All games will be live streamed through the league’s partnership with Sportsgram. Visit the GoCentenary.com website to access the link. Use the SCACSports.com website for tournament info.
SOFTBALL: The Ladies (13-25, 8-13 SCAC) turn their focus to the postseason as they will be the No. 5 seed in this weekend’s SCAC Tournament in Seguin, Texas and hosted by Texas Lutheran.
Centenary aims to snap a season-worst 10-game losing streak on Friday at 11 a.m. against the No. 4 seed Southwestern Pirates (15-24, 2-8 SCAC).
Centenary was swept at home last weekend by the Trinity Tigers including a 2-1 loss in eight innings on Sunday- Senior Day.
The Ladies dropped two of three games to the Pirates on the road in Georgetown, Texas during the regular season.
The tournament is a double-elimination event which wraps up Sunday. For coverage, visit the SCACSports.com website.
TRACK & FIELD: The Gents finished sixth and the Ladies seventh last weekend at the2024 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Trinity University Track & Field Stadium in San Antonio, Texas.
Senior Xavier Venious will return to San Antonio later this month as he attempts to qualify for next month’s NCAA Championships in the 400-meter hurdles at the Trinity University Last Chance Meet on Sunday, May 12.
FACILITY RIBBON-CUTTING EVENT: Centenary Athletics will hold a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate the completion of its new fieldhouse and football practice field on Thursday, May 9, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The celebration includes a reception and student-athlete-led tours of the new facilities. It is free and open to the public.
Centenary president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman, athletic director David Orr, and head football coach Byron Dawson will speak at the event inaugurating the new 4,700 square foot fieldhouse that houses locker rooms for Centenary’s football team along with its women’s soccer and softball teams. The facility, which also includes coaches’ offices, looks out over the new 76,500 square foot turf practice field. Adjacent to the Gold Dome and to Mayo Field, home of Centenary’s football, lacrosse, and soccer teams, the field house and practice field are the latest addition to Centenary’s revitalized athletic complex located on Kings Highway.
The ribbon-cutting event will also serve as the official re-launch of Centenary’s “C Club,” Centenary’s athletic booster club. C Club supporters can choose to allocate funds to specific athletic teams or to the athletic department as a whole, and can choose from a variety of individual and corporate affiliation levels. For more information or to donate, visit gocentenary.com online.
JUMP UP: LSU has won its last two SEC series while Gage Jump has given the Tigers two shutdown opening-game starts. (Photo by SIERRA BEAULIEU, LSU Athletics)
By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – Former LSU head baseball coach Skip Bertman passed his adage of shrugging off occasional non-conference losses to Paul Mainieri, one of his successors.
But current Tigers’ coach Jay Johnson doesn’t subscribe to such an approach.
Especially not this season when LSU (28-17, 7-14 SEC), by winning 4 of its last 6 conference games after a 3-12 start in the league, is scrounging for every positive morsel to stick on a resume to rally for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
It’s why prospective home wins over Grambling (18-22) tonight in Alex Box Stadium and Northwestern State (18-26) next Tuesday in the last two non-conference games of the regular season are suddenly huge.
“Tuesday is a must-win game, there’s no question about that,” Johnson said of playing Grambling. “If we can win those two (Grambling and NSU), then we’ll be 23 and 3 outside the league. I don’t know that there’s five teams in the country that can say that.”
There probably hasn’t been a defending national champion from the SEC that lost its first five conference series the following season and rallied down the stretch to steal an at-large NCAA tourney invite.
Three weeks ago, LSU had just about written its obituary for the 2024 season after being swept at Tennessee, the fourth of five SEC teams ranked nationally in the top 6 to hammer the Tigers.
But by finally playing and winning series over league bottom-feeders Missouri and Auburn the last two weekends, LSU’s NCAA Tournament chances now have a faint heartbeat.
“When it could have been easy to pack things in, I’ve watched a lot of guys show up to the ballpark every day, still put in work and still grow and still compete,” LSU grad student catcher Alex Milazzo said. “That’s what I’m most proud of right now.”
While the Tigers’ offense has hit a collective .293 in taking 2 of 3 games (12-1, 7-8, 6-2) at Missouri and 2 of 3 (5-0, 3-2, 5-7) at home vs. Auburn, it still averaged just 6.3 runs and batted .157 (3 of 19) with runners in scoring position.
What has finally come alive for LSU is what Johnson has been waiting on since league play started in March.
“Why we’re winning right now is the pitching staff,” Johnson said.
In their last two league series, 14 Tigers’ pitchers have combined for a 3.18 earned run average with 11 strikeouts and 2.2 walks per game in 51 innings.
Finally, against Auburn, the starting pitching moons aligned in Game 1 and Game 2.
UCLA transfer Gage Jump threw 7 scoreless innings in the series-opening win, allowing 2 hits. Alabama transfer Luke Holman followed in Game 2 by giving up 2 runs (1 earned) and 2 hits in 6.2 innings.
“This is the first weekend where Luke and Gage pitched really well together, and we won the series,” Johnson said. “Those were the two best pitchers in the transfer portal.”
Jump, who missed all of last season at UCLA rehabbing from Tommy John arm surgery, has been a terror the last two weekends as a Game 1 starter after his first five starts (3 as a Game 2 starter and one each as a Game 1 and a Game 3 starter) were painful learning lessons.
Against Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, Jump had a combined 7.66 ERA while striking out 22 and walking 13 in 22.1 innings.
In his last two starts vs. Missouri and Auburn, his combined ERA was 0.64 in a pair of 7-inning appearances. He allowed 5 hits and 1 earned run with a 20 to 1 strikeout to walks ratio.
“I always want to learn things, so the more I pitch the better I am,” Jump said. “Right now, it’s learning hitters’ swings, especially in the at-bats. The past couple of games I read a swing and I decided on a pitch I wanted to go with.”
LSU has a chance to make a huge statement to the NCAA tourney selection committee this weekend when the Tigers host No. 1 ranked Texas A&M (38-6, 15-6) starting Friday night.
“I feel like the mentality with this team is we’re right there,” said LSU outfielder Josh Pearson, who had the game-winning walk-off single in a 3-2 Game 2 win over Auburn. “We know how we can play and we know we haven’t been playing how we can. We know we just got to get over the hump and then we’ll be there.”
LSUS SLUGGER: Outfielder Jose Aquino clubbed four home runs last weekend to earn Red River Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week honors as LSUS locked up the regular-season conference championship. (Photo courtesy LSUS Athletics/RRAC)
JOURNAL SPORTS
Leaving no doubt, LSUS stormed to the Red River Athletic Conference baseball championship last weekend with a weekend left in league play, one the Pilots will enjoy at home beginning tonight against Texas College.
The Pilots swept Jarvis Christian on the road last weekend by a combined score of 41-13. In the opening 17-5 win, fourth-year LSUS coach Brad Neffendorf recorded his 200th win, moving to 200-45 overall in charge.
The series was also noteworthy because outfielder Jose Aquino slugged his way to RRAC Hitter of the Week honors by clouting four home runs and collecting nine RBI.
The Pilots now stand at 35-7 overall, including 25-2 in conference play, heading into the 6 p.m. series opener this evening and a noon doubleheader Saturday. They finish the regular season at home Tuesday night with a single game at 6 against Louisiana Christian.
Despite getting swept in their recent non-conference four-game series at Lewis-Clark in Lewiston, Idaho, the Pilots only dipped two spots in the latest NAIA Top 25. LSUS now stands at No. 4.
The RRAC crown is the program’s third straight. LSUS will start the conference tournament in Sterlington next Thursday and is very likely a host for a first-round NAIA tournament site the following week.
CAV STANDOUT HONORED: John Awoke of Bossier Parish Community College was voted Freshman of the Year on the All-Louisiana Men’s College Basketball Team. (Photo courtesy BPCC Athletics)
By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State SID, Written for LSWA
Two of the key members of McNeese’s record-setting men’s basketball turnaround season took home top honors on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s 2023-24 All-Louisiana Men’s Basketball Team.
Senior guard Shahada Wells, a transfer from TCU, won both Player and Newcomer of the Year honors while Will Wade was named Coach of the Year after leading the Cowboys to a 30-4 record and the Southland Conference regular season and tournament titles. Grambling’s Donte’ Jackson was a strong contender for the coaching award.
Bossier Parish Community College guard John Awoke rounded out the individual award winners, taking home state Freshman of the Year acclaim after averaging 15 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.
Centenary’s Seth Thomas, after leading the Gents into the NCAA Division III Tournament, was a third-team selection.
Shreveport native and Woodlawn product Tra’Michael Mouton of Grambling was an honorable mention selection, along with LSUS’ C.J. Carpenter.
The 2023-24 LSWA All-Louisiana Men’s Basketball teams were selected by a statewide vote of school sports information directors and media members.
2023-24 LSWA All-Louisiana Men’s Basketball Teams
Player of the Year: Shahada Wells, G, McNeese
Newcomer of the Year: Shahada Wells, G, McNeese
Freshman of the Year: John Awoke, Bossier Parish Community College
Coach of the Year: Will Wade, McNeese
First Team
Shahada Wells, G, Gr., McNeese, Fort Worth, Texas
17.8 points per game, 4.7 assists per game, Southland Conference Player of the Year, SLC Newcomer of the Year, Major Madness First-Team All-American
Isaiah Crawford, F, Gr., Louisiana Tech, Fort Worth, Texas
16.3 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game, Conference USA Player of the Year, CUSA Defensive Player of the Year, NABC All-District First Team
Daniel Batcho, F, R-Jr., Louisiana Tech, Paris, France
15.2 points per game, 9.8 rebounds per game, Conference USA Newcomer of the Year
Diante Smith, F, Sr., Nicholls, Fort Walton Beach, Florida
16.0 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game, First-Team All-Southland Conference
Jordan Wright, F, Gr., LSU, Waggaman, Louisiana
15.1 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game
Second Team
Kobe Julien, F, R-Jr., UL Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
17.3 points per game, 4.8 rebounds per game, Second-Team All-Sun Belt
Kevin Cross, F, Sr., Tulane, Little Rock, Arkansas
17.5 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game, Third-Team All-American Athletic Conference
Christian Shumate, F, Jr., McNeese, Chicago, Illinois
12.1 points per game, 9.5 rebounds per game, Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year
Nick Caldwell, G/F, Sr., Southeastern Louisiana, Prairieville, Louisiana
15.4 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game, First-Team All-Southland Conference
SPOTLIGHTED AGAIN: Former Shreveport resident Tynes Hildebrand’s impact on basketball in Louisiana is being celebrated next weekend by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches. (Photo courtesy Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame)
By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Beginning his playing days in junior high during World War II, riding for an hour in the back of a pickup truck to start college at Northwestern State, and finishing eight decades in organized basketball helping choose officials for the NCAA’s Division I Final Four, Tynes Hildebrand has lived an unparalleled career.
Player, coach, athletics director, officials observer. From the 1940s until a decade ago, the 93-year-old Hildebrand has been immersed in his favorite game, the only sport he could play growing up in rural Sabine Parish and attending tiny Florien High School.
He has counted among his friends and colleagues legends such as longtime USA Olympic coach Henry Iba of Oklahoma State, national-championship coaches John Wooden (UCLA), Indiana’s Bob Knight, UTEP’s Don Haskins, and Louisiana icons including Dale Brown, Fred Hobdy, Billy Allgood, Lenny Fant and Benny Hollis. Hildebrand, Knight and Haskins helped Iba pick the country’s 1972 Olympic team.
As head coach at Northwestern State, Hildebrand helped found the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches half a century ago. As the LABC celebrates that anniversary with its 50th Annual Awards Banquet Saturday, May 4 in Baton Rouge, it’s fitting that Hildebrand will become only the fourth recipient of the organization’s Don Landry Award since that elite recognition for long-term impact and service to the game in Louisiana was created in 1998.
It’s named for the founding father of the LABC. Hildebrand, now living with his wife of 72 years, Julia, in Flower Mound, Texas, after more than a decade spent at The Oaks retirement community in Shreveport, is touched to receive it.
“Don Landry’s the one who has done so much for Louisiana basketball. He involved so many people and did so very much, and got schools around the state invested in the LABC and building our game around the state,” said Hildebrand. “We had such good times with great fellowship that people wanted to be included. So to receive an award with his name on it is a distinct honor.”
Another iconic figure in state basketball history, LABC Hall of Famer and 2023 Mr. Louisiana Basketball recipient Mike McConathy, has a far-reaching understanding of Hildebrand’s impact. McConathy’s father Johnny, the No. 5 pick in the 1951 NBA Draft, was a senior at Northwestern State when Hildebrand joined H. Lee Prather’s Demons. The younger McConathy was a prep All-American at Bossier City’s Airline High, recruited nationally but ultimately choosing Louisiana Tech over his father’s alma mater. Later, he was tabbed to be the Demons’ head coach in 1999 and in 23 seasons became the state’s all-time winningest coach.
“His connections to every aspect of the game in our state, and beyond, from a player to a coach to international play, to referees, he has run the whole gamut. That’s rare, anywhere, and he’s one of a kind in Louisiana,” said McConathy.
Hildebrand spent 16 seasons (1965-80) as head coach at his alma mater, Northwestern State, where he posted 191 wins. He retired, and was named the LABC’s Mr. Basketball a year later, but returned in 1983 as the Demons’ athletics director for 13 years, working at half-salary in a financially-strapped department that under his guidance developed into one of the more successful in the Southland Conference on, and off, the field of competition.
As a coach and administrator, Hildebrand was an outstanding mentor. Among his prize pupils: Demons’ guard and future longtime Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey along with athletic department interns Greg Burke, his successor as AD who held that post for the next 26 years, and Greg Sankey, now in his 10th year as the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.
Hildebrand was enshrined in the LABC’s Hall of Fame in 1992 for his coaching career. A year following his retirement as AD, Hildebrand became one of the NCAA’s Division I officials evaluators in 1997, a role he fulfilled for 17 seasons. In 2006, he became one of the inaugural four NCAA regional officiating supervisors.
Generations of coaches, players and fans – and certainly, officials – have felt the influence. He says it’s been more than an equal trade.
“Louisiana basketball has been my life,” he said. “The Hildebrand family has lived a Louisiana basketball life. And it’s been good to us.”
By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director
Centenary won a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship Tuesday and has a chance to capture another at home this weekend.
Senior Andrew Bennett claimed the individual title at the SCAC Golf Championships Tuesday by firing a 2-under par 70. He became the first Centenary men’s golfer in the Division III era to win an individual conference title, finishing at 4-under par 212 over 54 holes on the New Course at White Bluff Golf Resort in Whitney, Texas.
The Diamond Gents baseball team is 2.5 games back of first as it enters its three-game series at home with league-leading Trinity. If Centenary can sweep the preseason SCAC favorites on the final weekend of the regular season, the reward will be the conference crown.
MEN’S GOLF: Bennett claimed his second career victory, going with the individual title at the UMHB Men’s Invitational last fall. He was the Gents’ top finisher last season in the SCAC Championships as he finished in a three-way tie for sixth place at 6-over par 222 to earn second-team All-SCAC honors.
Bennett entered Tuesday’s final round in third place and one shot behind 36-hole leader Jacob Mason of Trinity. He fired identical 1-under par 71 rounds on Sunday and Monday at the par-72, 6,918-yard course.
Bennett, who tied for 19th at the conference championships in 2022, now has two individual wins, three top-five finishes, and a top-15 finish this season. Centenary’s previous best individual finish in the SCAC championship was third in 2022 by Richard Polan.
Freshman Aubrey Snell finished third at 8-over par 224 and helped the Gents to a fourth-place team finish (+76 – 940). Snell and Bennett were named to the All-SCAC first team following Tuesday’s play.
BASEBALL: The Diamond Gents (18-15) fell 17-10 at Texas-Dallas on Tuesday afternoon in their final non-conference game of the regular season.
Centenary’s high-stakes SCAC series at Shehee Park begins with a single game on Friday at 6 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. The Diamond Gents will honor their senior class following Saturday’s action.
Centenary, 18-15 overall, is 12-5 in conference play. Trinity’s Tigers are 14-4 in league play and 27-9 overall. The teams met on March 9 in San Antonio with Trinity recording a 13-4 win in what was considered a non-conference contest despite the two being league foes.
The 2024 SCAC Baseball Tournament is next weekend in Cleburne, Texas.
SOFTBALL: The Ladies fell to St. Thomas 8-6 last Sunday afternoon in the third and final game of a conference series as the Celts completed the weekend sweep at the West University Softball Association Complex in Houston.
The Ladies (13-22, 8-10 SCAC) dropped a doubleheader a day earlier by scores of 6-1, 12-10 and have lost seven games in a row.
Senior rightfielder Mackenzie Cox did her part last weekend. She hit .545 (6-11) with a .615 OBP and slugged .636 with six runs scored, eight stolen bases, two walks, and a double. Cox has 18 multi-hit games including five games with three hits and has stolen two or more bases in a game 15 times this season. She is second nationally in stolen bases with 46 in 49 attempts.
Despite the current losing streak, the Ladies have qualified for the SCAC Tournament to be hosted next weekend by Texas Lutheran.
Centenary will finish the regular season at home against Trinity (26-11, 14-4 SCAC), with a doubleheader on Saturday at noon and 2 p.m. and a single game on Sunday at noon. The Ladies’ senior class will be honored after the Sunday finale.
WOMEN’S GOLF: The Ladies finished seventh in the conference tournament Tuesday. The Ladies shot a 391-over par 1,255 at the New Course at White Bluff Golf Resort.
Freshman Hailey Adams earned a 30th-place finish to lead the Ladies as she shot an 88-over par 304 (97-98-109).
