San Antonio - The top-ranked Trinity baseball team lost 8-4 to Texas Lutheran University Friday night in the opener of a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series at the Trinity University Baseball Field.

"That was a good old-fashioned butt-whooping," admitted Head Coach Tim Scannell. "Credit to TLU in every aspect of the game. Defensively, they made some stellar plays. Their pitcher was outstanding: three pitches, down in the zone, attack-oriented. Offensively, to me this was the big difference in the game: when they had runners in scoring position, they squared the baseball. They didn't get caught up in the air. They didn't roll over. They drove that run in. I thought we fought. I don't we did anything wrong, I think TLU just whipped us. That was the difference. We have to be ready to go tomorrow. It's a big day."

The Tigers now stand at 27-6, and 10-3 SCAC, while the Bulldogs improved to 20-9 and 10-0 in conference play. TLU is in first place in the SCAC standings, 1.5 games ahead of second-place Trinity. The Tigers had only their second home loss of the season, and are 14-2 on the Trinity campus.

After Texas Lutheran jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings, the Tigers finally got on the board with Brody Fehmel's RBI double.  The Bulldogs responded with two runs in the fourth, and another in the fifth to make it an 8-1 lead. Trinity rallied with a couple of runs in the fifth, and Colin Serkowski's solo homer in the seventh, but the TLU lead was too much to overcome.

Connor Moore and Drew Butler each hit 2-5 in the game, while Butler cracked his 10th double of the season. Serkowski's home run was his second this season, and he wound up with two RBI in the game.

Troy Nelson (4-1) was chased from the game in the second inning.  Four Tiger relievers finished off the evening, highlighted by Ian Hussian's three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work.  Hussian allowed just one hit, and combined with Jeff Lonnecker to hold Texas Lutheran scoreless over the final four innings.

Troy Nelson was the starting pitcher, and hurled for 1.1 innings. Nelson was charged with his first loss of the season, and stands at 4-1. Four pitchers followed Nelson on the mound: Gianfranco Filippini, Pierce Pontikes,  Ian Hussian, and Jeff Lonnecker. The Tiger staff yielded seven earned runs and 15 hits, while striking out six batters.

Trinity and Texas Lutheran will play a doubleheader Saturday, starting at 1:30 p.m. The 15 Tiger seniors will be honored in a special ceremony before the first game.