SAN ANTONIO – Trinity's No. 3/5 baseball team will make its 2023 debut this week, kicking off a long home stand to open the season with a three-game series against fourth-ranked Birmingham-Southern College on Friday night. Trinity is led by Head Coach Tim Scannell, who opens his 25th season at the helm of the program.

The Tigers are fresh off a 38-win season that saw the program advance to the NCAA III World Series for the third time since 2015. Trinity brings back three All-Region players, including senior catcher Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock), senior outfielder Ezra Gore (McKinney, Texas / North), and junior pitcher Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander). Pettit was also named a Fifth Team All-American by D3baseball.com.

Preseason Rankings – ABCA and D3baseball.com
Trinity is ranked third in the preseason poll released in December by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, while the Tigers are fifth in the initial D3baseball.com poll released just last month. Last season's national runner-up, Salisbury University, is the top-ranked team in both polls, while the 2022 National Champion Eastern Connecticut State University is second in the D3baseball.com poll. LaGrange College, which was one win from the NCAA Championship series and handed the Tigers both of their losses in the World Series last year, is ranked third in D3baseball.com's poll and second according to Collegiate Baseball. Birmingham-Southern is fourth in both polls, while Chapman University is fifth in the Collegiate Baseball ranking.

The Skipper: Head Coach Tim Scannell
Coach Scannell enters his 25th season with 775 career wins at Trinity, which is by far the most in school history. He has led the Tigers to 14 appearances in the NCAA Playoffs, including the NCAA III World Series in 2015, 2016, and 2022. Trinity won the NCAA III Championship in 2016 under his direction. Coach Scannell has led his teams to 30 or more wins in 18 seasons – including three 40-win seasons in a four-year span.

Preseason Outlook
Trinity returns five starting position players from last year's team, as well as five pitchers that appeared in 10 or more games last season. Birmingham-Southern is the only team on this year's schedule that is currently ranked, though the Tigers will face three different teams that are receiving votes in the D3baseball.com poll. Trinity will play a home-and-home with the University of Texas-Dallas, who hosted Trinity in a best-of-five NCAA III Regional Tournament last season. Fellow SCAC schools Texas Lutheran and Centenary are also receiving votes. The Tigers will play at Texas Lutheran for a three-game SCAC series March 24-26, while Trinity hosts Centenary March 31-April 1 for a three-game conference series.

Chavana pitched in 19 games in 2022, sporting a 10-2 record with a pair of saves, as well as recording 80 strikeouts in 90.2 innings of work. He finished the year with four complete games, which included two shutout victories. Junior pitcher Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) also worked in 19 games during the year, finishing with an 8-0 record and a team-best four saves. He also had 68 strikeouts in just 47.2 innings, and was the only Tiger player named to the NCAA III Tournament Team last year.

Pettit batted .359 last season and started 36 of his 40 games played last season. He drove in 37 runs on 12 doubles and 11 home runs. Gore started all 50 games he played, scoring 57 runs and recording 19 steals in 23 attempts, while hitting 13 doubles and picking up 40 RBI.

Junior infielder Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) drove in 42 runs and scored 41 more, batting .319 with 10 doubles and six round-trippers. Senior infielder Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) batted .341 with 46 runs scored. Also returning is junior infielder Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial), who started 24 of his 28 games played, hitting .370 with 18 runs scored and 26 RBI.

SCAC Predicted Order of Finish: Tigers Favored to Win SCAC
Trinity was picked by the coaches in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference to win the SCAC Championship in 2023. The Tigers have won the SCAC Regular Season Championship each of the last three full seasons (not counting the 2020 season lost to COVID), but have not won the SCAC Tournament title since 2019. Texas Lutheran University was picked second, followed by Centenary College--last year's tournament champions--the University of St. Thomas, Southwestern University, Schreiner University, the University of Dallas, and Austin College.

Who's on Deck: Birmingham-Southern Feb. 10-12
In a highly-anticipated rematch of teams that faced off in last year's NCAA III Super Regionals, Trinity will play host to Birmingham-Southern for a three-game weekend series to start off the season. The Tigers won all three games against the Panthers last year, improving to 6-4 in the series with their former conference opponent.

While the Tigers return the trio of All-Region honorees in Pettit, Gore, and Chavana, BSC welcomes back a pair of Preseason All-Americans (Noah Best and Ian Hancock) from last year's team that went 41-10. Like Trinity in the SCAC, Birmingham-Southern was also chosen to win the Southern Athletic Association Championship this season.

After dropping its season opener against Lynchburg College last year, Trinity got its first win of the season at BSC. The Tigers scored five runs in the final two innings to earn the 7-4 win. Gore was 2-3 with three RBI and a home run in the game, while Durow struck out 10 over 5.0 innings to earn the win.

Both teams advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals later in the season – a best-of-three series which was also played at BSC. The opening game was a back-and-forth affair that saw Best homer twice and drive in six runs for the Panthers. Trinity tied the game 6-6 in the sixth, then scored three times in the eighth on its way to a 9-8 win. Harris drove in two runs in that pivotal eighth inning, while Durow got the win again – in relief this time.

Trinity scored six times in the second inning of game two, but Birmingham-Southern eventually tied things up 8-8 in the seventh. Gore singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth, then the Tigers scored five more times in the ninth to pull away with the win. Harris had a pair of hits and scored three runs, while Montrezza drove in two runs to jump-start the ninth-inning barrage.

Looking Ahead: Hardin-Simmons series Feb. 18-19
Trinity will host Hardin-Simmons University in a three-game series next weekend, beginning with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader that begins at 12:00 p.m. The series finale is at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Tigers have won 10 straight meetings against the Cowboys – including last year's 7-3 victory in Abilene, Texas.