SAN ANTONIO – The 17th-ranked Tiger baseball team split a Friday evening doubleheader with sixth-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in dramatic fashion, winning game two with a walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Trinity (5-4) finished with a game-ending home run for the second straight night, following a three-run ninth inning in Thursday night's series opener. The Tigers lost today's first game 7-3, then led most of the way in game two before needing the ninth-inning rally to salvage the split.

Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa. / La Salle College HS) drilled a line-drive grand slam to win the Friday finale, which was his third home run in the past two nights.  

Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / J.B. Alexander) improved to 3-0 with the game two victory, while Corey Cater (Sacramento, Calif. / Valley Christian Academy) was saddled with the game one loss to fall to 0-3 this season.

Trinity and Whitewater will finish off the series tomorrow morning at Nelson W. Wolff Stadium, continuing an 11-game home stand that will include four more games next week.

Game One Rundown

Cater got a double play to end the top of the first inning of the opening game, and the Tiger offense went to work quickly with two runs on three hits in the bottom of the inning. Jack Baker (Sugar Land, Texas / Ridge Point) started things off with a double and MJ Metz (San Diego, Calif. / Canyon Crest Academy) drove in the first run of the game two batters later. Jack Vonderhaar (Woodinville, Wash. / Redmond) knocked in Metz with a sharp single to center and Trinity took a 2-0 lead. In what proved to be the story of game one, the Tigers did leave a pair of runners on base, though, missing a chance at an even bigger inning.

UW-Whitewater quickly answered with two runs of its own, taking advantage of two Trinity errors to tie the game without getting a hit. The Warhawks picked up their first hit of the game in the third inning, but left the bases loaded and the game was still tied.

After scoring in the first, Trinity stranded eight more runners before it would score again in the seventh inning. Meanwhile, UWW had two runs on three hits in both the third and fifth innings to take a 6-2 lead over the home team.

Metz got his team on the board again with a solo homer in the seventh, but Trinity had two on with just one out and failed to add on any more runs. The Warhawks got that run back in the eighth, and the Tigers loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the inning to bring the tying run to the plate. Trinity stranded all three runners, though, and the game remained 7-3.

Luke Pfeiffer (Valencia, Calif. / Trinity Classical Academy) made his collegiate debut as a ninth-inning reliever and pitched around a hit batter at the start. Trinity loaded the bases again in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate for the second straight inning. Once again, Whitewater escaped with no damage – inducing a game-ending double play to take the win. All told, Trinity left 17 runners on base in the game.

Game Two Rundown

Trinity's offense got going early again in game two, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead. The Tigers had a pair of hits in the inning, but three Whitewater errors prolonged the inning and allowed Trinity to strike first.

The Tigers added another unearned run thanks to an error and a passed ball in the second to make it a 3-0 lead, then scored again on another RBI double from Metz in the third.

Starting pitcher Samuel Conte (Boston, Mass. / Phillip's Academy) picked up seven strikeouts in the first three innings to complement the 4-0 cushion the offense put together. UW-Whitewater broke up the shutout in the fourth with a two-run home that cut the lead in half.

Trinity got the runs back in the fifth, sparked by a leadoff double off the bat of Jack Wisniewski (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian). Despite the 6-2 lead, though, the Tigers squandered another chance at more runs after leaving the bases loaded once again.

UW-Whitewater chased Conte from the game with a two-run double in the sixth that made it a 6-4 Trinity lead, then added another unearned run in the seventh to drop the deficit to a single run. The Warhawks picked up four straight hits to start off the ninth, including a pair of RBI singles and another two-run homer. Now instead of trying to pull out a one-run win, the Tigers were facing a ninth-inning deficit for the second straight night.

Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) was hit on the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth, then Metz also got plunked to put two runners on and prompt a pitching change. Vonderhaar then drew a walk to load the bases, setting up Schaub's game-winner.

Numbers to Note

Metz went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored in the first game, then added two more runs scored and another RBI in the second.

Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial), and Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) had two hits each in the opening game.

Schaub had two hits in each game, including his grand slam in the ninth of game two.

Cater gave up just four earned runs over seven innings, striking out seven batters.

Gore had four runs scored in game two going 1-for-3 at the plate.

Up Next

Trinity and UW-Whitewater will finish the series at Wolff Stadium at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow.