2026 Season Preview: Centenary Baseball
The Centenary baseball team opens its 2026 season on Friday as the Diamond Gents will face the Occidental College Tigers with first pitch set for 2:30 PM local time at Anderson Field.
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Los Angeles – The Centenary baseball team opens its 2026 season on Friday as the Diamond Gents will face the Occidental College Tigers with first pitch set for 2:30 PM Pacific Time (4:30 PM Central) at Anderson Field.
The Diamond Gents and Tigers will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 AM Pacific (1 PM Central) and 2:30 PM Pacific Time (4:30 PM Central) to finish the series.
Live stats and live video are available for all three games at the links below:
STATS: https://oxyathletics.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary
VIDEO: https://www.flocollege.com/live/234273
Centenary completes its opening weekend on Sunday at 1 PM versus Whittier College in a non-conference contest in Whittier, Calif.
The Diamond Gents are scheduled to play 39 regular-season games – 30 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference contests and nine non-conference games. The Maroon and White then waste no time getting into league play as they will face Schreiner University Feb. 13-14 in Kerrville, Texas.
Centenary then welcomes Millsaps College to town on Tuesday, Feb. 17 for its home opener set for 4 PM at Shehee Stadium. The Diamond Gents will play 24 games on the road this season and just 15 at home and are set to play 15 league games at home and 15 on the road.
"We feel like we have a very challenging non-conference schedule that will prepare us for the grind of conference play," said head coach Mike Diaz.
"Our guys have worked very hard this Fall and are excited to go out and start competing and see how we stack up this season."
Diaz, the all-time wins leader in program history, enters his 16th season as head coach of the Diamond Gents this season. He is an impressive 338-255-1 (.569 winning %) in his 15 seasons with the Maroon and White and 166-99 in conference play (One season in Summit League and 12 seasons in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference).
The veteran coach has led the program to three NCAA Tournament appearances, four SCAC regular season championships, and three SCAC Tournament titles. Diaz became the all-time winningest coach in program history with his 292nd win on April 16, 2023 at home versus Schreiner University, having passed former HC Ed McCann (1999-2010) for the all-time wins mark.
Diaz moved into third-place all-time in conference history with 144 SCAC regular-season wins with a win on April 20, 2024 against Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, passing Jim Mallon of Southwestern. Diaz won his 300th game on Feb. 13, 2024 in Centenary's season-opening win over Rhodes College.
The Diamond Gents have notched nine 20-plus win seasons since 2013 and won 13 or more conference regular-season games in four-consecutive seasons from 2021-24. The Diamond Gents have finished first, second, or third in the conference in every season except two (fourth – 2021 and sixth in 2024) since joining the SCAC in 2013.
Matthew Lillard has joined the staff as Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator. Lillard, a native of Dallas, Texas, comes to Centenary with five+ years of college coaching experience, and three years exclusively at the Division III level. Lillard's stops include being a member of the University of Dallas coaching staff in 2021, the Franklin College staff from 2022 to 2023, and the top assistant at LSU of Alexandria in 2024 and 2025.
Lillard played baseball initially at Millsaps College and later at Hendrix College, where he lettered three years and was named First Team All-Conference, Second Team All-South Region, and All-Arkansas Honorable Mention his junior year.
Chris Zapata enters his third season with the program as Assistant Coach & Head of Player Development and Tyler Welch enters his third season as Volunteer Assistant Coach. Tyler Herrera, who finished his superb career with the Diamond Gents in 2025, has joined the staff as a student assistant coach.
Zapata, Welch, and Herrera were each All-SCAC players during their careers with the Diamond Gents and were all coached by Diaz.
The Diamond Gents will head back to the west coast to face George Fox University in a four-game series Feb. 19-21 in Newberg, Ore., and are then back home to close to the month of February with a three-game league series versus Concordia University Feb. 27-28.
The month of March begins with a road series at Hendrix College followed by a home set with LeTourneau University and another meeting with Millsaps, this time in Jackson, Miss. on Tuesday, March 17. The Diamond Gents finish the month with a road series at the University of Dallas and are home versus Austin College.
Centenary is on the road for six straight games in league play to open the final month of the season – at Texas Lutheran University (April 2-3) and at McMurry University (April 10-11). The Maroon and White then finish the regular season at home – versus the University of St. Thomas (April 17-18) and against University of the Ozarks April 24-25.
A look back at last season:
The Diamond Gents had an uncharacteristic season as they finished 16-24 overall and 12-18 in SCAC play, marking just the second losing season in the division III era (2012-present) and also missed the conference tournament for the first time.
Centenary, picked to finish third in the league in the preseason coaches' poll, suffered multiple impactful injuries and its young roster was tested by a difficult schedule. The Diamond Gents hit .260 as a team with 14 home runs and averaged 5.75 runs per game and finished with a 5.97 team ERA and had three complete games and three players were named to the 2025 All-SCAC Team.
Sophomore OF Blaine Birkelbach (Pearland, Texas) is back this season after he earned Honorable-Mention recognition last season as he was one of the SCAC's top freshmen as he hit a team-high .316 with a .435 OBP and slugged .482. He played in 38 games (36 starts), and had 36 hits, 25 runs scored, 18 RBI, five doubles, four triples, two homers, and eight stolen bases.
Other notable returners include senior RHP Jacob Broussard (Houston, Texas), senior 3B Clay Menard (Berwick, La.), junior DH Walker Wicklund (Shreveport, La.), sophomore P Roman Ardoin (Lumberton, Texas), sophomore LHP Carson Dingler (Chandler, Texas), sophomore IF Aron Gillum (Shreveport, La.), sophomore IF Brody Hebert (Houma, La.), sophomore UT Tyler Hughes (Coushatta, La.), junior C/IF Miles Keith (Lindale, Texas), sophomore P Coen Laroux (Woodworth, La.), sophomore IF Noah Paulson (El Lago, Texas), sophomore P Tony Barcelona V (Pearland, Texas), senior OF Matthew Herrera (Sunnyvale, Texas), senior P Colby Wilkerson (Kilgore, Texas), senior C/1B Caleb Ickes (Prairieville, La.) and senior OF Lenny Forth (Flower Mound, Texas).
The Diamond Gents are picked to finish sixth in the conference this season and earned 67 points. Centenary received one vote in the 2026 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 released last month
The 2026 SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held at The Depot at Cleburne Station in Cleburne, Texas as the double-elimination tournament will begin on April 30.
See the complete Diamond Gents' season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/bsb/2025-26/schedule
Information on Season Tickets and single game tickets is available at the following link: https://fan.hudl.com/usa/la/shreveport/organization/69826/centenary-college-of/tickets
For more information or to donate to Centenary athletics and the baseball program, visit gocentenary.com/gocentenary/C_Club.
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