St. Paul, Minn. – The Tiger baseball team lost a hard fought game to Aurora University despite the offense putting up nine runs on 11 hits. Trinity University was eliminated from the St. Paul, Minnesota regional after today's 14-9 loss to the Spartans. 

The Rundown

The game started with a pair of scoreless innings for both teams, but the bats got going in the middle and late innings in what turned out to be a high-scoring contest.

Trinity started things off in the bottom of the third, as Jack Vonderhaar (Woodinville, Wash. / Redmond) followed a leadoff single by Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) with a two-run home run. Two batters later, Rafe Chaumette (Sugar Land, Texas / Clements) scorched a double to left field to score Michael Goodrich (Gilbert, Ariz. / Basha) and Trinity had a 3-0 lead after three.

Aurora answered with a pair of runs in the fourth to make it a one-run lead, but the Tigers kept the momentum with four more runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead. Mason Meredith (Houston, Texas / Memorial) started the scoring with a one-out single, a stolen base, and later scored on a wild pitch. After that, Vonderhaar's double was followed by back-to-back homers by Goodrich and Chaumette to close out the scoring.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Spartans wrestled away that momentum almost immediately, beginning with four runs in the fifth. Aurora tied things up with another run in the sixth, then took an 11-7 lead with a grand slam in the top of the seventh. The Spartans kept the scoring going in the seventh with a three-run homer later in the inning to double up Trinity's run total.

The Tigers struggled to get much of anything going until the bottom of the ninth where Trinity made a late push. Chaumette led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single. A few batters later, Brian Schaub (Hartfield, PA / La Salle College) brought Chaumette in with a two run blast to cut the Tigers deficit to five runs. Trinity University eventually fell to Aurora by a score of 14-9. 

Notables

Chaumette went 4-for-5 at the plate with one home run, two suns scored, and two runs batted in. 

Goodrich and Vonderhaar both went 2-for-4 at the plate with one home run, two runs scored and two runs batted in. 

James Nittoli (San Antonio, TX / Alamo Heights) started on the mound for the Tigers, going 4.2 innings while allowing nine hits and three earned runs on five strikeouts. 

Jack Schmitt (St. Louis, MO / Lafayette) came out of the bullpen and unfortunately suffered the loss after throwing one inning and giving up five hits and seven runs. 

With Schaub's home run in the ninth (14), he tied a single season record set by Bo Edwards in 1998. 

This is just the third time Trinity has gone 0-2 at a regional (2010) and (2014). 

The #9 Tigers finished the season with a 28-9 record.