Centre College players celebrated after winning the SAA Tournament and now get to host NCAA Tournament games. (SAA Photos)
Maybe it wasn’t a perfect weekend for Centre College senior infielder Aaron Lopez, but it was close.
He was named the most valuable player of the Southern Athletic Association Tournament in Rome, Ga., last week when he had nine hits, drove in seven runs, scored four runs, and handled 19 field chances without an error in Centre’s four wins.
“It was so awesome. We were playing in Georgia and close to my family (in Atlanta) and they got to watch me play. My dad told me just to play free and it went from there,” Lopez said. “I probably have not had four straight games that good offensively and defensively here at Centre. I was blessed and hopefully we can do it again this weekend.”
Lopez and the Colonels stayed on their hot streak Monday when the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament pairings were announced and Centre (31-13) was selected as one of the host schools. Centre has won 10 of its last 11 games and had to win the SAA Tournament to make the NCAA — and did.
Centre will face Piedmont (30-13) in the first round Friday. Washington University (28-11) and Aurora (31-12) play in the other first round game.
Lopez said it was a “complete surprise” to the players when the pairings were revealed and Centre was a host team. The Colonels have played in the previous two NCAA Tournaments both were on the road each time.
“It was a huge moment (when the pairings were revealed) and everybody was so energetic,” Lopez said. “The majority of us thought we would be away from home again. This is huge for us. I think if we are playing at home, I like the Colonels. We play well at home and I really hope we have a huge turnout.”
Lopez, who is hitting .338 with 30 RBI’s and 35 runs scored, expects this weekend to be fun.
“For the first time this season we are playing teams that we have no real idea about,” he said. “When we are playing in conference the games are always competitive due to the rivalries. Now we are playing random teams and I think that will be fun.”
This could be a stressful week for Lopez and his teammates because semester exams start Thursday. The senior said coaches help players schedule times with professors to make up exams they have to miss because of postseason play.
“It’s a big time management thing but that is part of being a student-athlete at Centre College,” he said. “You have to be able to organize your schedule properly to get it all done.”
The Colonels certainly organized everything perfectly in the SAA Tournament. After edging Oglethorpe 5-3 and top seed Trinity 4-3, Centre based No. 2 seed Rhodes 9-1 and 11-3 the next two games to win the tournament and advance to NCAA play. In the first win over Rhodes, Centre scored eight runs in the first inning. In the second win, Centre had six runs in the first inning.
“It was such a joy to do what we did. I have never seen our team so locked in from top to bottom throughout the whole tournament,” he said. “Our defense played amazingly well and our offense produced a lot of runs.
“Getting eight runs in the first inning certainly freed up our pitchers and then once we got in the championship game, we did the same thing. We never gave them (Rhodes) any chance to really work. We all clicked at the same time and it’s always good to be playing your best in the postseason. Now we are hoping to keep this going as long as possible.”
