Chris Zapata enters his fourth season with the program in 2027 as he serves as Assistant Coach & Head of Player Development.

The Diamond Gents finished the 2026 season 21-21 overall and 16-14 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play and appeared in the SCAC Tournament for the 12^th time in the division III era (2012-present).

Centenary won 20+ games in a season for the 10^th time since 2013 and its 16 league wins marks the ninth time the Maroon and White won 13 or more conference regular-season games since 2013. Ten Diamond Gents were named All-SCAC. 

Centenary finished 23-20 overall and 13-7 in SCAC play in 2024. With the help of Zapata and his knowledge of the game, the Gents had a dominant offensive performance on the field with many double-digit scoring games and a massive number of 10+ hit games. Chris helped guide the Gents to an NCAA appearance after winning the Conference Championship against Texas Lutheran by a score of 9-5 in the second Championship Game.

Zapata finished his playing career at Centenary in 2018 after a very successful four years on the diamond.  He was a four-time All-Conference selection, SCAC Newcomer of the Year, Conference Player of the Year, All-West Region Selection by the ABCA/Rawlings and D3Baseball.com, and First Team All-American.

Zapata played in 167 games as a Gent, as he batted .346 with a .966 OPS. He is among the top-10 of a vast number of offensive categories in Diamond Gent Baseball history and will be known as one of the best hitters in Centenary history in both D1 and D3.

He helped lead the Gents to an NCAA appearance in 2017 after winning the Conference Championship against Trinity 13-3 in which he belted a grand slam in his first at bat of the game.