Tyler, Texas - Trinity opened up its 2016 campaign with a 3-2 loss to Birmingham-Southern College on Friday afternoon at the Clements Fluid Classic Tournament, hosted by the University of Texas-Tyler.

The game marked the first loss to start a year for the Tigers since 2009, snapping a six-game winning streak in season-opening games.  It was also the first meeting between Trinity and Birmingham since the two schools were league opponents in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.  the Panthers defeated the Tigers 5-3 in the SCAC Tournament, held in Millington, Tennessee.

Tonight's game was scoreless through the first three innings, and the only hit by either team came on a leadoff single from Trinity's Connor Moore in the bottom of the first inning.  Birmingham got on the board in the fourth - but was still without a hit after plating an unearned run.  

The Panthers scored in the fifth and seventh as well, breaking up the Trinity starter Ryan Gray's no-hit bid with a pair of singles in the fifth inning.  Following Moore's early-game single, the Tigers were held without a hit until the seventh.

The final frame began with Trinity trailing 3-0, and facing the possibility of being shut out in a season opener for the first time in the SCAC era (since 1992).  That was not to be, though, as Colin Serkowski and Jeremy Wolf started the inning with a pair of hits, and Wolf's double drove in the first run of the game for the Tigers.  

After a Drew Butler single to put two on with no outs, Jose Santos scored Wolf on a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 3-2.  McEachern walked to put two on with one out, and after a fielder's choice put runners on the corners with two outs, Austin Singer flied out to center to end the Tiger rally.

"It was a tight ball game," said Head Coach Tim Scannell. "We were mentally not prepared to play live competition. Our guys were probably a little too focused on what they did last year and did not understand it's a whole new year. We didn't pitch very well and we hit poorly. They hopefully understand that what someone says about you doesn't necessarily make you a good team. You have to earn it. They will have to understand that although they were good last year, it's a whole new year."

Gray (0-1) suffered his first collegiate loss, allowing two earned runs (three total) on five hits over 6.2 innings of work.  He struck out seven batters in his season debut, but also yielded four walks.  Jeff Lonnecker and Chris Tate finished off the game for the Tigers, giving up just one hit over the final 2.1 innings.

Butler picked up a pair of hits for the Tigers, who had just seven hits total in the game.  Serkowski and Wolf scored the only runs for Trinity, and collected their only hits in the final inning.

Trinity resumes action at the weekend tournament tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m., facing off against LeTourneau University.  The game will be played in Longview, Texas.  The Tigers take on UT-Tyler on Sunday afternoon, beginning at 3:00 p.m.