Shreveport, Louisiana - The top-ranked Trinity baseball team opened a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series with an 11-4 victory over #12 Centenary College Friday night.

The Tigers now stand 21-4 on the season, and 6-1 in SCAC competition. Centenary dropped to 17-4, and lost its first conference game of the campaign, falling to 6-1 in the league. The two teams will play a doubleheader Saturday, starting at noon.

"We started the game with Troy Nelson, and he had a little bit of a hiccup," said Head Coach Tim Scannell. "He couldn't really establish a breaking ball, so it was a little bit of a back-and-forth game. We came out and banged the ball pretty good, and Waters had a huge home run, and we jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Then they answered. Our guys kept their poise, and we went to really good offensive at-bats, came up with some timely hits, and pulled away from them. We had great relief outings from Gianfranco Filippini, Andrew Hoffman, and Dylan McGee. In a game that had a chance to get shaky, the bullpen came in and solidified the ballgame."

Trinity blasted off first in Friday night's matchup, with a big six-run second inning. Nick Jewett cracked a two-RBI double, and Andrew Waters plastered a three-run homer to left field, highlighting the scoring. It marked the fourth round-tripper of the season for Waters. The resilient home team came back with four runs in the third inning to cut into the lead. Trinity then put up a run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, and added three more in the seventh to finish off the scoring. 

Jose Santos was the top Tiger hitter, as he went 4-5 at the plate, smacking two doubles, and scoring three runs. Waters hit 2-4 with four RBI, and Jewett was also 2-4 at the plate, with three RBI.

Troy Nelson was the starting pitcher, allowing three runs on six hits, and was chased from the game in the third. Gianfranco Fillippini came in for the next 2.1 innings, picking up his first victory of the season after giving up just two hits. Andrew Hoffman and Dylan McGee each pitched two innings to finish off the game. The duo allowed just three hits over the final four innings.