SAN ANTONIO – The No. 3/5 Trinity Tiger baseball team opened up the 2023 season with a 3-0 loss against fourth-ranked Birmingham-Southern College on Friday night.
The Tigers had won five straight meetings between the two programs, winning each of the three games last year on the road. Trinity swept BSC in the NCAA Super Regionals to advance to last year's NCAA III World Series, but the Panthers got their revenge tonight with the shutout win – their first against the Tigers and just the third time in the last two seasons that Trinity failed to score a run.
Neither team had a hit through the first three innings as starters
Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) for Trinity and Joey White for BSC both got off to strong starts to open the season on the mound. Birmingham-Southern opened up the fourth inning with a sharp single to break up the no-hitter, then scored on a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly to get on the board first.
The Panthers added another run in the sixth to take a 3-0 lead, while Trinity's offense was still searching for its first hit of the game. Chavana was chased from the game in the top of the seventh, yielding to
Clayton Jackson (Allen, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) out of the bullpen. Jackson induced an inning-ending double play to keep it a 3-0 game.
Trinity worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth, with
Jack Schmitt (St. Louis, Mo. / Lafayette) coming in to shut the door. Schmitt got a strikeout to end the inning and strand two runners on. In the bottom of the inning,
Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) blooped a one-out single to center to break up the no-hitter and White came out of the game after the next batter. Pinch-runner
Jack Baker (Sugar Land, Texas / Ridge Point) made it to third base, but the Tigers flew out to end the inning.
After two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth,
Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) notched the second hit of the game for the Tigers by lacing a double down the left field line. The next Tiger hitter walked to bring the tying run to the plate, but BSC got the game-ending strikeout to finish off the win.
Up Next
Trinity and Birmingham-Southern will continue the weekend series with game two on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. The two teams finish things up at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
