CLEBURNE, Texas – The 12th-ranked Tiger baseball team fought back to reach the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game with an 11-0 win over the University of St. Thomas on Saturday night. (PHOTO CREDIT: Russell Kramer, SCAC Office)

Trinity lost to Centenary College in today's opening game, while St. Thomas eliminated Texas Lutheran University later in the afternoon. The Tigers improve to 31-9 overall with tonight's win.

Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) allowed just one hit in 7.2 innings of work, striking out nine batters to earn the victory and improve to 4-0 on the season. The only hit allowed by Martinez was to the third batter of the game in the opening inning.

MJ Metz (San Diego, Calif. / Canyon Crest Academy) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI in the game, including his third home run of the tournament late in the game.

The Rundown

The game opened as a pitcher's duel as the two teams combined for no runs on just three hits over the first three innings. Trinity blew the game open with nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

The shutout was broken up with six runs on six hits, as well as a St. Thomas error that led to three unearned runs. Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) opened the prolific inning with a single up the middle, followed by a double to left-center field off the bat of Nathan Braulick (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian). Jack Vonderhaar (Woodinville, Wash. / Redmond) drove in a run on a fielder's choice for the first run of the game, then Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) roped a double down the right field line to score two more and make it 4-0.

After a walk to Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh), Trinity hit into a double play for the first two outs of the inning. Metz drove in Pettit for the fifth run of the inning, then Jack Wisniewski (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) smashed a triple to right-center to make it 6-0.

Two errors in the fifth led to three more Trinity runs, with Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) picking up the only RBI of the inning with a double down the right field line. Montrezza scored on the Harris double, while Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa. / La Salle College HS) and Pettit scored on an error earlier in the inning.

The Tigers notched two more runs in the eighth to set up the run-rule, both of which were scored on a towering home run to left field by Metz.

Numbers to Note

Gore joined Metz with a multi-hit game, extending his hitting streak to 29 consecutive games with a first-inning single.

Pettit finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI, while Schaub also scored twice in the game.

Up Next

Trinity advances to the SCAC Championship game against Centenary College on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. The Tigers must beat the Gents twice to win the SCAC title.