SHERMAN, Texas – The 14th-ranked Tiger baseball team opened up a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend series at Austin College with a 5-1 victory on Friday night.

Trinity did most of its damage in the fifth and sixth innings, scoring four of its five total runs to take the lead for good. The Tigers now stand 27-8 overall this season and remain atop the SCAC standings with a 17-2 league record.

Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / J.B. Alexander) struck out 11 batters in his fourth complete game of the season, scattering eight hits and allowing just one fourth-inning score. He notched nine of his 11 strikeouts over the final five innings to preserve the win.

The two teams will cap the weekend with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader. Trinity can clinch the SCAC Regular Season Championship by winning one of the two games. The SCAC Championships Tournament begins next weekend.

The Rundown

Neither team had a hit until the bottom of the third when Austin opened the frame with an infield single. Chavana promptly picked the runner off and got the next two outs to keep it a 0-0 game through three innings.

Austin opened the fourth with another hit, eventually turning that leadoff double into a run that put the home team in front 1-0 after four.

After being held hitless over the first four innings, the Tiger offense finally woke up with three hits in the fifth inning. More importantly, Trinity also picked up a couple of runs to take a 2-1 lead. Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) opened the inning with a walk, followed by Trinity's first hit of the game off the bat of Jack Vonderhaar (Woodinville, Wash. / Redmond). MJ Metz (San Diego, Calif. / Canyon Crest Academy) tied the game with a single to right field, then the Tigers took the lead on a fielder's choice by Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) and an error by the Kangaroos.

An error, a single, and a wild pitch got the Tigers going in the sixth, putting two runners in scoring position with just one out. Harris drove in the first of two runs with a groundout, then Vonderhaar slashed a double to right to give Trinity a 4-1 advantage.

In the eighth, Montrezza picked up his first RBI of the game with a single, scoring Harris to make it a 5-1 Tiger lead. Austin College made it interesting with a pair of hits in the ninth, but Chavana registered a pair of strikeouts and a game-ending ground out to keep the 'Roos from mounting a comeback.

Numbers to Note

The last time a Trinity pitcher had four or more complete games in a season was 2013. Chavana's effort tonight matched the number of complete games thrown by Ryan Lucero that season.

Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) was one of three Tiger players to have two hits in the game and his fifth-inning single extended his hitting streak to 24 straight games. That ties a 24-game streak set by Jordan Pennington in 2008 and 2009. Jason Armstrong's school-record 42-game hitting streak is not just the longest in school history, but is one of the longest in NCAA Division III history.

Metz and Vonderhaar joined Gore with two hits each, and the trio accounted for six of the team's eight hits in the game. Harris was the only Tiger player to score two runs in the game.

Vonderhaar's two hits tonight push him to 100 in his career, joining Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) and Jack Wisniewski (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) as the only Trinity active players with 100 or more in a career. Metz needs just four more himself to join his teammates in the century club.

Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa. / La Salle College HS) drew four walks in the game to tie the school record for a single game. This is the second time in his Tiger career that he has tied the record, and he is the second Trinity player to draw four free passes in a game this season. Gore also had four walks in a game against St. Thomas recently.

In addition to tying the single-game record, Schaub also reached 100 walks in his career. He needs just two more walks to become the first player in Tiger history to record 40 or more walks in two seasons, and he is also just eight walks from tying the school record. For his Trinity career, he is tied for 16th on the all-time list after drawing 81 of his 100 career walks in two seasons with the Tigers.

Up Next

Trinity and Austin College will complete the regular season schedule with a doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.