Since the beginning of spring break on March 8, the Trinity Baseball team has played seven games, all of which they won. From March 8-9, the Tigers played a three-game series at Austin College. Friday, they won 9-1 and during the first game on Saturday, they won 3-2, and the second game they defeated Austin College 9-3.
March 14-15, the baseball team had their second three-game series against Southwestern University at home. The first game on March 14, the team won 10-0 in eight innings and the next day the Tigers won the first game 10-5, and the second they won 7-2.
Just this past Tuesday, March 18, the Tigers faced off against Mary Hardin-Baylor in what turned into a 12-inning game. In the ninth inning Mary Hardin-Baylor scored two runs to have a 3-2 edge over Trinity. Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Trinity scored again and brought the game into extra innings when sophomore Andrew Waters scored off a hit by Austin Singer. In the top of the 12th inning, Mary Hardin-Baylor scored again to lead 4-3. Then, in the bottom of the 12th, senior Chris Bianchi scored and tied the game at 4-4. Then sophomore Connor Moore got a hit, and after a sacrifice bunt, Moore was on third base with only one out. Mary Hardin-Baylor then decided to walk the next two batters and load the bases to try and finish out the 12th inning. Then, senior Pat Hirschberg hit a ground ball and a mis-thrown ball to the plate allowed Moore to score for the win.
“Very competitive game versus UMHB. They are a great program and team. We played sloppy at times, but this team is very resilient and seems to find ways to win. We played just okay, overall. We had some moments when we were sloppy and moments when we were sharp. Our pitching did a pretty nice job all night. We battled when we were down,” said assistant coach Zach Fregosi.
Sophomore Michael Walker adds, “It was a good game against a top-25 team. They played well, but we played better at first, we couldn’t string hits together, but at the end, when we really needed to, we finally did.”
After this win, Trinity moves up to the No. 1 spot in the d3baseball.com poll. The Tigers earned 15 first-place votes and ended up with 605 points total, which bumped them past Linfield, who now holds the No. 2 spot with 603 points. Overall, the Tigers have an 18-1 record and a 6-0 SCAC record.
Moving forward, Trinity has a few spots they want to continue to work on to keep their season on the right track.
“We need to do a better job of situational hitting and team offense. I feel we are playing good baseball, but still have a few areas that we can improve in,” Fregosi said.
The Tigers feel that if they continue to improve their offensive game, then they can go all the way this year.
“Our goal for the season is for us to win the NCAA National Championship and for us not to lose one more game on the way to the World Series,” said sophomore Andrew Waters.
