Tyler, Texas - The seventh-ranked Trinity baseball team rallied to beat the No. 22 and host University of Texas-Tyler 11-6 to wrap up its weekend at the Clements Fluid Classic on Sunday.

Trinity opened its season by going 2-1 on the trip to Tyler and Longview, Texas. The Tigers were edged 3-2 by eighth-ranked Birmingham-Southern College in Tyler, and then bounced back to beat LeTourneau University 13-4 in Longview. Tyler was the site of last year's NCAA Regional, where the Tigers went undefeated and advanced for the first time to the DIII World Series.

Trailing 6-4 through five innings, the Tigers hammered out a four-run sixth to take the lead for good.  The scoring outburst was capped by a two-run homer from Jose Santos.  Trinity added three more runs in the next inning for good measure, highlighted by Colin Serkowski's two-run single.

Left-hander Chris Tate pitched the final 5.1 innings and chalked up the victory. Tate did not allow a run, and permitted only one hit and three walks. He also fanned nine of the Patriots players in the process.

"We had a great resolve, and fought like crazy tonight," said Head Coach Tim Scannell. "They competed. The story in the game was Chris Tate coming in relief and taking the game home. We are asking them to kind of clean up their focus defensively. We are asking the pitchers to get more attack-oriented - that's what Tate did. He was pounding the strike zone. Jose Santos is outstanding."

Trinity opened the game with a three-run first inning, keyed by a two-RBI double by Santos. UT-Tyler evened things up with three runs of its own in the bottom of the stanza, and took the lead with a pair of runs in the third. The Tigers added a run in the fourth to make it 5-4, but the Patriots answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Santos batted 2-5 with four RBI and scored two runs, while Serkowski hit 3-4 with four RBI and one run. Connor Moore went 4-6 with one RBI and two runs.  Brody Fehmel scored three runs, while going 2-4 at the plate. In the course of the game, the Tigers racked up 16 hits, against 10 for UT-Tyler.

The Tigers travel to Belton, Texas, Tuesday, to take on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 6:00 p.m. Trinity opens its home campaign next weekend with a three-game series against the University of Texas-Dallas. Friday's single game starts at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday's doubleheader gets under way at 1:00 p.m.