No. 6 Seed Ladies Open SCAC Tournament On Thursday Versus Trinity
The No. 6 seed Centenary softball team opens the 2025 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship against the No. 3 seed Trinity University Tigers on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Taylor-Sanders Field on the campus of Southwestern University.
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Georgetown, Texas – The No. 6 seed Centenary softball team opens the 2025 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship against the No. 3 seed Trinity University Tigers on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Taylor-Sanders Field on the campus of Southwestern University.
Live stats and live video are available for the game and can be found in the Championship Central.
Championship Central: https://www.scacsports.com/tournament/spring/softball/25championships/index
The Ladies and Tigers will be joined by No. 1 seed and regular-season champion Texas Lutheran University, The No. 2 seed University of St. Thomas, No. 4 seed Concordia University, and No. 5 seed McMurry University. The tournament, a double-elimination event, was originally scheduled to begin on Friday but the possibility of rain or severe weather on Friday pushed the afternoon session to Thursday evening.
TLU will face the Concordia-McMurry winner on Friday at 10 a.m. and St. Thomas will face the Centenary-Trinity winner at 12:30 p.m.
See the official bracket here: https://scacsports.com/tournament/spring/softball/25championships/25bracket.pdf
The Ladies (19-20, 14-15 SCAC) have now made nine-consecutive SCAC Tournament appearances. Centenary went 0-2 in last season's event held in Seguin, Texas as the Maroon and White fell to Southwestern in its opener and was eliminated by the University of St. Thomas. The Tigers (30-10, 23-7 SCAC) made it to the championship game last season before falling to Texas Lutheran University.
Centenary has a .276 team batting average with a .359 OBP and is slugging .342 with 10 home runs, 48 extra-base hits, and 361 total bases. The Ladies have scored 177 total runs and average 4.5 per game with 10 games of 10+ hits. The Ladies scored a season-high 11 runs against McMurry on April 11 and have scored eight or more runs in a game eight times and 10 or more three times.
The Ladies' 14 conference wins this season are the most in a single season in the division III era (2013-present) and their 19 overall wins are one shy of a D3-program high 20 accomplished in 2018.
Centenary and Trinity met in San Antonio during the regular season as the Tigers recorded a series sweep, winning 4-0, 3-1, and 6-0. The Ladies rebounded from that sweep by winning two of three against Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas last weekend to cap the regular season. The last meeting between the Ladies and Tigers in the SCAC Championship was in 2023 with Trinity claiming a 1-0 win.
Players to watch this weekend:
Senior P/UT Emma Shepherd (Athens, La.) was one of the conference's top pitchers this season as she is third in IP (109.0), fifth in strikeouts (72), and ninth in ERA (2.76). She made a team-high 24 appearances (top 10 in conference) and 12 starts and tossed seven complete games (tied for team lead). She is ranked in the top 10 in the league in opposing batting average (.231) and wins (8). Shepherd made history on March 22 at home against Southwestern in the Ladies' 5-1 win as she struck out 14 batters, which is the most by a Centenary pitcher in a single game in the division III era (2012-present) of the program. Shepherd's 14 K's are tied for the most by a SCAC pitcher in a game this season.
Junior 2B Catherine Stokes (Natchitoches, La.) had another solid season for the Ladies as she hit .285 (.338 OBP/.323 slugging) with 37 hits (third on team), 21 runs scored (second on team), five doubles (third on team)10 RBI, 10 BB, four stolen bases, and only 6 K in a team-high 130 at-bats. Posted eight multi-hit games and finished with a .978 fielding %.
Senior P Anna Scarbrock (Alexandria, La.) was once again one of the conference's top pitchers as she ranked in the top 10 in the conference in IP (79.1) and made 18 appearances and a team-high 14 starts. Posted a 7-6 record with a 3.53 ERA and tossed a team-high tying seven complete games and a team-best three shutouts. Walked only 10 batters while striking out 23 in her 79.1 IP. Pitched 6+ innings seven times during the season with a season-high nine in her first start of the season against Millsaps on Feb. 8.
Senior C/1B Abby Touchet (Shreveport, La.) was one of the conference's top offensive players all season in her first with the Ladies after transferring from TLU. Touchet is hitting .393 with a .486 OBP (seventh in conference) and slugging .598 (fifth in conference). Touchet, who was hitting over .400 for the majority of the season, is tied for eighth in the conference in hits (46), eighth in RBI (28), tied for fifth in doubles (9), and tied for fourth in home runs (5). She is fourth in the league in total bases (70), tied for fourth in BB (19), fifth in total plate appearances and tied for ninth in at-bats. She tallied 15 multi-hit performances including one 3-hit game and eight games with multiple RBI with one game of three RBI and had a season-high 4 at Ozarks on March 1. Three of her five home runs came in conference games and 22 of 28 RBI were in league play.
Senior 3B Viviana Rivero (Redondo Beach, Calif.) had a fantastic comeback season after being limited to just eight games in 2024 due to injury. She was one of the conference's top offensive players as she hit .362 (.381 OBP/.491 slugging) with three HR, six doubles, 25 RBI, 42 hits, and 18 runs scored. She ranked third in the conference in sacrifice flies (4) and tied for eighth in the league in HR and was ranked in the top 10 for the majority of the regular season in hits, RBI, and home runs. She had 12 multi-hit performances including one 3-hit game and one 4-hit performance and only struck out nine times in 116 AB with six BB.
Freshman SS Kaitlynn Alello (Denham Springs, La.) shined in her first season with the Ladies as she was one of their top all-around players. She hit .347 (.529 OBP/.427 slugging) with 26 hits, 17 runs scored, 11 RBI, 4 stolen bases, and 10 BB. She led the conference and country in HBP with 19, ranked in the top 10 in the conference in sacrifice bunts (5) and had eight multi-hit games.
Junior LF Laine Sullivan (Prairieville, La.) had a productive first season with the Ladies as she posted 25 hits, 17 runs scored, 17 RBI, three extra-base hits, six multi-hit performances, and had a career-high four RBI in a 7-5 win with two hits against Schreiner on April 25. She walked 11 times and was 5-5 in stolen-base attempts.
Sophomore CF Noelle Sandmann (Huntsville, Texas) in her first season as a full-time starter as the Ladies' everyday CF, had 20 hits, 19 runs scored, five RBI, 11 BB, a triple, and seven stolen bases in seven attempts. She had five multi-hit games and finished with a .973 fielding %. Sandmann ranked in the top 10 in the conference in sacrifice bunts (5).
Junior P Alexis Roach (Pineville, La.) tossed a complete-game shutout on Sunday as the Ladies blanked Schreiner 5-0 in Centenary's regular-season finale in Kerrville, Texas. The junior allowed just one hit with three strikeouts as she needed just 49 pitches (29 strikes) to finish off the Mountaineers. Roach now has seven CG's in her career and three shutouts.
See the complete Ladies' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/sball/2024-25/schedule
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