Tiger Baseball comes into this season with the energy of a conference champion. Last season, the team went 31-16 en route to a conference title and an appearance in the NCAA postseason. Trinity ultimately fell short of their goal to make it to the College World Series, losing in the regional championship to East Texas Baptist University. This season, the Tigers will attempt to take their season a step further by returning to the College World Series.
Trinity Baseball last made the College World Series in 2022, a year when the team earned run average (ERA) was a dismal 6.29. While the Tigers’ 2023 campaign was shorter, they saw notable improvement in that area, achieving a collective ERA of 3.44. This is a trend they will try to continue, but according to Head Coach Tim Scannell, key departures from the pitching staff present a challenge.
“I think we’re devastated by the three key losses that we had, and I think probably the most unheralded of them is Cade McGahan,” Scannell said. McGahan served as one of the team’s three regular starting pitchers, achieving a 2.47 ERA. Despite the loss of McGahan, Scannell still feels comfortable with his starting pitching.
“We feel we have three really strong starting pitching options in Joe Chavana, Jackson Teer and James Morio, but then after that, it’s gonna be kind of trial by fire,” Scannell said. Scannell expressed concern for his bullpen, which lost its two most reliable arms from last season.
“Jack Martinez has now emerged as one of the elite arms at basically a Top-25 Division I program, so I don’t know how you replace those arms. And then, of course, Harrison Durow is playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, so those are massive losses,” Scannell said. Martinez and Durow anchored the Tigers’ bullpen, particularly in late, high-leverage innings. Trinity Baseball must figure out who their new anchors are as the season progresses.
Offensively, most of the starting lineup is returning, but last year, the bats struggled to find their rhythm at times. This was seen in full effect on March 28 of last season in a game against the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor when the Tigers left 14 men on base. Trinity had no problem getting runners aboard, it was just a problem of bringing them in to score.
“[We need to] cut down on the strikeout,” Scannell said. “I’m not sure that’s the expectation — that’s the goal. I’m not a big goal guy, but the strikeout has been a problem. I like where we’re at in our messaging, and I like where we’re at in our teaching and I like how receptive they are to it, but we’ve got to find more barrels.”
Despite their inconsistency on offense, Trinity Baseball was able to win some high-scoring affairs, most notably a 13-10 win over Pacific University in the regional playoff. The offense showed what it was capable of in the postseason, scoring at least ten runs in four of their eight playoff games.
“I think that, in one sense, we have a veteran group, and I know they have high expectation levels for themselves,” Scannell said. The Tigers bring back an experienced group that experienced the highs and lows a season can be. Trinity Baseball swept their conference tournament last season, winning all three games by three or more runs. They advanced to the regional but experienced the low of their season ending sooner than they wanted. This season, they will try to move past that barrier.