By John Breech / STAFF

Centennial might be the only baseball team in the state that’s hoping to see rain wash out the rest of their April schedule. Prior to the month, the Knights were 10-3 and ranked sixth in the state. Since the calendar flipped however, the Knights have gone 1-4, including Friday night’s devastating loss to Lassiter.

The loss came despite a stellar effort from starter Stuart Mals. Mals pitched 6.2 innings of brilliant baseball for Centennial and the sophomore really only made one mistake on the night. Unfortunately, the Trojan’s Brandon Stephens made him pay dearly for it. With two outs in the seventh, two men on and the score tied at three, Stephens jacked a three-run home run that proved to be the difference in Lassiter’s 7-3 win. “It was just one of those situations where he made a bad pitch,” said Knight Head Coach Billy Nicholson.  “You can’t do that to teams like Lassiter, they’ll hurt you and that’s what happened.” Mals went 6.2 innings on the night while surrendering five earned runs and striking out four. “[Mals] did throw a heck of a game though,” Nicholson added.

Centennial’s best chance to blow the game open came in the fifth. With the Knight’s trailing 3-1, Mals (1-for-3, 2B, 1 RBI) led off the inning with a double. Senior Denzel Campbell (1-for-3) followed up a Nick Soltis strikeout with a single to left that scored Mals. Campbell made it to second on the hit when Trojan left fielder Andrew Gordon tried to gun down Mals at the plate. Campbell’s heady base running paid off when the Knight’s next batter, Kevin Hartigan (1-for-4, 1 RBI), knocked a single to right that scored Campbell, knotting the game up at three.

The next batter, Jay Baum, reached base on an error, he was followed by Dylan Kelly who loaded the bases for Centennial with a single. With one out and the bases juiced, Centennial looked like they would be definitely tacking on a few more runs. However, cleanup hitter Taylor Stephenson flew out to first for out number two and Corbin Blakey then struck out to end the inning. Nicholson would have loved to see his three stranded runners score, “It was tough, we definitely had some opportunities to go ahead in the game,” he said, referring to the fifth inning.

The loss means the Knights have now dropped four of their last five. “The last five ball games we just haven’t been able to get the big hit when we needed it,” Nicholson says, “After the game I told the kids that we still have a shot, we just have to pick it up on Monday, we’ve beat Walton [their opponent tomorrow], just like we’ve beat Lassiter, a couple base hits here or there, we could have come away with this one.”