SAN ANTONIO – The 19th-ranked Trinity baseball team earned a season series split with the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor with a 7-3 home victory on Tuesday night.

The Tigers won their 11th consecutive game to improve to 21-7 on the season and exact revenge for a 12-9 defeat at the hands of the Crusaders last month.

Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) broke a 3-3 tie with a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning. That came just after UMHB tied the game with a pair of solo homers in the top half of the inning. Alex Bihn (Houston, Texas / Westside) threw 5.1 innings in relief to earn his first victory of the season for the Tigers.

Tonight's win marks the end of eight straight home games and will send Trinity on the road for the first time in the month of April. The Tigers will be back to their conference schedule with a three-game series at Schreiner University on Friday and Saturday.

The Rundown

Both teams put runners on in the first inning, but neither was able to score. Trinity had a runner on second with one out in the bottom half of the inning, but a line-drive double play ended the threat.

Mary Hardin-Baylor got on the board with a run in the second, beginning with a leadoff single, and ending with a two-out hit to make it a 1-0 game. Trinity answered quickly as Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa. / La Salle College HS) drew a leadoff walk and Jack Wisniewski (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) was hit by a pitch to put two on with no outs. Two batters later, Jack Vonderhaar (Woodinville, Wash. / Redmond) tied the game with his RBI single to right field. MJ Metz (San Diego, Calif. / Canyon Crest Academy) laced a single to left-center with two outs to drive in two more and give Trinity a 3-1 lead after two.

Both teams stranded a pair of runners on base in the third, then UMHB loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth. Bihn came on after the first two runners collected hits. After allowing a walk to the first batter he faced, he got the next three batters out to strand the bases loaded and keep it a 3-1 Trinity lead.

The Crusaders were able to tie the game up with a pair of solo homers in the top of the seventh inning, but Harris lofted his second grand slam of the season over the wall in left to put Trinity back in front 7-3. Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) and Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) got back-to-back singles with one out to get the inning started, then Wisniewski was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game – and the fifth time in his last two starts – to load the bases and set up Harris with the go-ahead homer.

Bihn took advantage of the lead and retired the next four batters he faced, including a 1-2-3 eighth inning. After a one-out walk in the ninth, Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) came on to close out the game with a pair of strikeouts.

Numbers to Note

Trinity improves to 29-10 against Mary Hardin-Baylor during the SCAC era (since 1992), and has won 12 consecutive home games in the series.

Vonderhaar went 3-for-3 to lead a quartet of Tiger players enjoying multi-hit games. Harris, Metz, and Pettit were the other three.

Gore picked up a single to extend his hitting streak to 17 consecutive games, which is the longest for a Trinity player since Rafe Chaumette hit safely in 19 straight games in 2019.

Up Next

The Tigers will resume Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a three-game road series at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. The series starts with a single game at 2:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, followed by a Saturday doubleheader.