Baseball Celebrates Senior Day this weekend in Big Series with Texas Lutheran
Baseball Celebrates Senior Day this weekend in Big Series with Texas Lutheran
SHREVEPORT, La. - First place is on the line in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Friday and Saturday when #6 Centenary baseball (24-5, 10-2 SCAC) welcomes Texas Lutheran (19-10, 10-2 SCAC) Friday and Saturday, April 7-8. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday night, while the Saturday doubleheader is set for 1 p.m.
Senior Day
For the final home conference games this weekend, Centenary will celebrate the careers of seniors Grant Debevec, Scott Dwyer, Aaron Quintanilla, and Michael Schimpf. The class is quite accomplished in the Centenary history books with a 93-57 overall record and a 45-21 mark in SCAC play coming into the weekend, a regular season SCAC Championship in 2015, and national rankings in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
"It is hard to put into words how thankful I am to have coached these four young men," explained head coach Mike Diaz. "I know that these guys have come every day ready to work to make themselves and their teammates better, and that is all a coach could ever ask. Michael, Aaron, Scotty, and Grant have represented this institution, their families, and themselves admirably in their time here. They should take great pride in knowing they are leaving this program better off than when they came. They have set the bar very high for our future Gents.
"On behalf of the coaching staff and their teammates, I would like to say thank you."
After taking the 2016 season off, Debevec returned this year for his senior season and made an immediate impact. In his first start in nearly two years at nationally-ranked Occidental on February 5, he allowed only a solo home run and struck out nine in 5.2 innings in Centenary's 11-1 win.
For his senior campaign, Debevec holds a 3-0 record and a 5.89 ERA and 21 strikeouts in nine appearances and 18.1 innings pitched. For his Gents career, he holds a 4-5 record with a 7.92 ERA in 50 innings pitched.
A three-time Academic All-Conference honoree, Debevec is seeking a degree in geology with minors in math and physics at Centenary. After graduation, he plans to take off a year to work before attending Colorado School of Mines to pursue a master's degree in physics.
Dwyer transferred to Centenary for the 2016 season and made an immediate impact, being named SCAC Offensive Player of the Week after his first weekend of play in a Gents uniform. In 25 games during his junior season, Dwyer had 44 assists and 72 putouts with no errors in 26 games. In 43 games in his Maroon and White career, Dwyer is batting .257 with 26 hits, five triples, four doubles, and one home run with 28 runs scored and 18 RBI's. In 2017, he has six hits (including two doubles and three triples) with nine walks, 11 runs scored, and seven RBI's.
Last season, Dwyer was named Academic All-Conference.
A business administration major at Centenary, after graduation, Dwyer plans to attend graduate school at the University of Kansas and become a graduate assistant for the baseball team.
In four seasons, Quintanilla has helped rewrite the Centenary record books. In the first three years, he captured All-Conference honors as three different positions: First Team as a Shortstop in 2014, Second Team as a Second Baseman in 2015, and Second Team as a Designated Hitter in 2016.
In 2014, Quintanilla finished third in the conference with 17 stolen bases and fifth in both average (.361) and RBI's (31) to be named SCAC Freshman of the Year and made an appearance on the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Region Third Team.
A .325 hitter in his time at Centenary, Quintanilla comes into the weekend tied for first in triples (eight), eighth in runs (118), fifth in stolen bases (44), ninth in hits (167), and 10th in total bases (233) in the career annals. This season, he leads the conference with 42 runs scored and sits fourth with 29 RBI's. He is 11th with a .339 batting average.
A business administration major at Centenary, he plans on traveling before settling in Houston to start a career after graduation.
Finally, Schimpf will be playing in his final SCAC home games at Shehee Stadium. Along with Quintanilla, there is no shortage of accolades for the Shreveport native in his career. Schimpf is looking to go 4-for-4 in the All-Conference department; finishing First Team as a Third Baseman in 2014, Second Team as an Outfielder in 2015, and First Team as an Outfielder in 2016.
Schimpf led the SCAC and finished 36th in the nation with a .425 batting average his junior campaign - the second-best season batting average in school history. Accolades including being named to the West All-Region Teams by both the ABCA (Second Team) and D3Baseball.com (Third Team) and Second Team All-State by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
Like his fellow classmate Quintanilla, Schimpf has also rewritten much of the Centenary baseball career book. Coming into the weekend, he leads in hit by pitches (45) and tied for the lead in triples (eight), second in runs scored (151), third in hits (204), sixth in batting average (.368), seventh in total bases (274) and 10th in walks (86).
So far in 2017, he again leads the conference in batting average at .436, just ahead of freshman teammate Cody Crowder's .435. He also leads in slugging percentage (.702) and on-base percentage (.588) while sitting second in both runs (39) and RBI's (35, to junior teammate Chris Zapata's 46).
As accomplished as Schimpf is on the field, he is equally impressive off the diamond. A history and French major with Pre-Law and History awards at Centenary, he is a three-time Academic All-Conference recipient as well as a CoSIDA Academic All-American and All-District recipient last season. Groups he is involved with include the Honor Court and the Maroon Jackets.
After college, he intends to attend law school.
In the Polls
#7: American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball
Career Lists
Many Gents are moving up on the career stats lists:
| Batting Average |
| 5. Jim Kubik (1983-84) .380 6. Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) .368 7. Sonny Gaea (1994-95) .363 |
| Hits |
| 1. Tony Cardone (2001-04) 236 2. Bobby Gilliam (2000-04) 226 3. Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 204 4. Ricky Slade (1978-81) 186 5. Brian Stier (1992-94) 295 6. Alex Maldonado (2005-08) 178 7. Mitch Ashmore (1978-80) 177 8. Andy Watson (1979-82) 171 9. Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 167 10. Jeff Schaffert (2009-12) 166 |
| Runs |
| 1. Bobby Gilliam (2000-04) 184 2. Michael Schimpf (2017-pres.) 151 3. Dennis Traynor (1989-91) 141 4. Brian Stier (1992-94) 122 5. Andy Watson (1979-82) 121 6. Sonny Gaea (1994-95) 118 Ricky Slade (1978-81) 118 8. Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 116 |
| Doubles |
| 5. Dustin Brandon (1996-97) 33 Ricky Slade (1978-81) 33 Cliff Shepard (2009-10) 33 Chris Zapata (2015-pres.) 33 9. B.J. Grenda (2001-02) 32 Alex Maldonado (2005-08) 32 ... Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 30 Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 29 |
| Triples |
| 1. Dustin Brandon (1996-97) 8 Mitch Ashmore (1978-80) 8 Bill Schmidt (1977-78) 8 Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 8 Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 8 6. Jason Chick (2000-01) 7 David Coss (1979-82) 7 Larry Haas (1976-77) 7 9. Justin Huff (2006-07) 6 Tim Ryan (2005-06) 6 David Kiefer (2005-06) 6 Nic Parrott (2011-14) 6 Total Bases |
| 5. Bobby Gilliam (200-04) 283 6. Ken Kaveny (1991-92) 275 7. Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 274 8. Mitch Ashmore (1978-80) 270 9. David Wyss (1991-92) 243 10. Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 233 ... Chris Zapata (2015-pres.) 229 RBI's |
| 4. David Turkoly (1994-96) 119 5. Chris Zapata (2015-pres.) 116 6. Jeff Schaeffert (2009-12) 115 7. Tony Cardone (2001-04) 113 8. Alex Maldonado (2005-08) 112 9. Ken Kaveny (1991-92) 110 Andy Watson (1979-82) 110 ... 11. Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 107 |
| Walks 8. David Turkoly (1994-96) 89 9. Mike Hainsfurther (1995-98) 88 10. Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 86 Hit By Pitch |
| 1. Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 45 2. Dakota Brown (2012-16) 37 3. Marc Martinez (2011-14) 30 |
| Stolen Bases |
| 4. Patrick Beale (2002-03) 46 5. Bill Schmidt (1977-78) 44 Aaron Quintanilla (2014-pres.) 44 7. Roy Gilbert (1986-88) 43 8. Matt Webb (2006-07) 41 9. Matt Creamer (2010-13) 40 10. Dustin Brandon (1996-97) 37 ... Michael Schimpf (2014-pres.) 36 |
| Wins |
| 3. Ken Marks (1979-82) 20 Justin Kraft (2008-11) 20 5. Robert Lozano (1988-91) 18 Kevin Cassidy (2000-04) 18 Taylor Henry (2012-15) 18 Kaleb Kirk (2015-pres.) 18 9. George Fauber (1982-85) 16 |
| ERA |
| 1. Cecil Upshaw (1961-64) 1.18 2. Kaleb Kirk (2015-pres.) 2.63 3. Charles Kirby (1974-76) 2.65 |
Next Up
The last of three regular season contests between #6 Centenary and #3 UT Tyler takes place in Shreveport Tuesday night, April 11. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
