For the first time in school history, the Centenary Gents baseball team is headed to NCAA Division III playoffs. And it is probably no coincidence that two of the Gents’ top players, Matthew Devillier and Cole Lavergne, hail from Southwest Louisiana, a hot bed for producing college prospects.
The baseball program at Centenary has been around for nearly 100 years.
“It’s a great feeling that all the hard work we put in during the offseason and the extra hours after practice paid off,” Devillier said. “This is a great group of guys to be with and I wouldn’t want to share this with any other team.”
The Gents will face 2013 Division III national champion Linfield at 7 p.m. today in the eight-team West Regional at the University of Texas at Tyler. The regional champion moves on to the World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin, starting May 26.
Centenary beat 2016 Division III national champion Trinity 13-3 to win its first Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament title two weeks ago. Devillier got the final four outs in that game and Lavergne went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run.
Devillier was the Gents’ top reliever last year posting six saves but has turned into a record-setting starter on the mound as a sophomore after not starting a game since his senior year at Sam Houston High School in 2015.
“It was extremely different because I hadn’t started a game since high school,” Devillier said. “During the fall, I had to make adjustments.
“Every time I went on the mound, I tried and competed like my job was on the line. I’m the type of guy who refuses to lose and will do everything I can not to.”
That drive has led Devillier, who recently returned from a two-week stay in Australia as part of his degree program, to a spotless 11-0 record and a school single-season record for wins. He has a team-leading 2.66 earned run average in 842⁄3 innings and was named the SCAC Pitcher of the Year. He is ranked second nationally in Division III in wins behind Redlands’ Felix Minjarez (12).
“I tried not to think about the record that much, but it was still on my mind,” Devillier said. “I actually didn’t know what the record was until I won my eighth game. After that I tried to reach the record, but I knew I had to focus on one game at a time.”
Lavergne, who has started 122 consecutive games over three seasons at first base, has moved over to fill the relief role vacated by Devillier, returning to the two-way role he played at Sulphur High.
Lavergne, a right-handed sidearm thrower, helped lead the Sulphur to the 2013 quarterfinals but had to have Tommy John surgery after the season and didn’t play for nearly a year before signing with the Gents in 2015. He has pitched 531⁄3 innings this year with a 2.70 ERA and 4-1 record.
His breakthrough game came on Feb. 11 against East Texas Baptist. He came on relief but gave up a grand slam and went back to first base. Later in the game he returned to the mound, got the save and hit a three-run home run.
“They were unsure If I would be the main guy to close,” Lavergne said. “Later in the game, coach (Mike Diaz) put me back in and I struck that guy out and that was a turning point because I knew they believed in me.
“That is a moment that I won’t forget.”
Lavergne is one save from tying the school single-season record (9) and ranks 13th in Division III with eight. He is ranked 15th in the national with an 8.17:1 strikeout-to-ball ratio (49 K’s, 6 BB).
At the plate, Lavergne is hitting a career high .308 with 36 runs, eight doubles, two triples, four home runs and 27 RBIs.
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