SAN ANTONIO – The 10th-ranked Tiger baseball team will host its fourth three-game series to start the season this weekend, followed by a pair of midweek games next week that signify the start of Spring Break Baseball.

Trinity begins a busy stretch of games with a three-game series against Concordia University (Wisc.) on Friday afternoon. The Tigers and Falcons will play for the first time, and while Trinity comes into the series with a 5-4 record this year, Concordia will be playing in its season opener. Of the four opponents the Tigers have faced to start the year, this will be the third to begin its 2023 season in San Antonio.

Following the weekend, Trinity will host the University of Texas-Dallas on Tuesday evening at 5:00 p.m., followed by DeSales University on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Trinity and UT-Dallas met in last year's best-of-five NCAA Regional Tournament, with the Tigers winning three out of the four matchups. The teams will also meet in Richardson, Texas, on Tuesday, April 18, to complete a home-and-home series this season. Trinity and DeSales will meet for the 15th time since 2008 and the Tigers lead the series with a 14-2 record against the Bulldogs.

Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) is leading the team in hitting with a .393 (11-for-28) batting average so far this season, including a pair of home runs and a team-best five RBI. Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) has scored six runs to lead the way so far this season, as well as collecting three doubles and four RBI. Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) and Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) have also hit two home runs early in the year to tie for the team lead. Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) and Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) both have started off with 17 strikeouts in their first three appearances, while Cade McGahan (Davidson, N.C. / Hough) leads the Tiger staff with a 1.13 ERA in his first three games on the mound, allowing just two earned runs in 16 innings and recording 14 strikeouts.

NCAA III Poll: Tigers Remain in the Top 10
Despite a 5-4 start to the season, Trinity fell just five spots to 10th in the latest D3baseball.com poll, which was also the first regular season poll for 2023. Salisbury University is first, followed by Birmingham-Southern College, Eastern Connecticut State University, LaGrange College, and Baldwin Wallace University in the top five. The Tigers opened the season against Birmingham-Southern, with BSC taking two out of three games to win the weekend series.

Who's on Deck: Concordia-Wisconsin (March 3-5) / UT-Dallas (March 7) / DeSales (March 8)
Trinity hosts Concordia for three straight days this weekend, beginning Friday at 4:00 p.m. The teams will also play Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. and the series finale begins at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Concordia comes into the 2023 season picked to finish sixth in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, following last year's 18-22 overall record that included a 12-12 record in the NACC. Aurora University, which knocked Trinity out of the 2021 NCAA Playoffs, is picked to win the NACC this season.

Last season's NCAA Regionals series against Dallas was the first time the teams had met during the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference era of Trinity baseball (since 1991). The Tigers took a relatively quiet 7-4 win in the opener, then survived an offensive outburst 18-13 in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader the next day. UT-Dallas handed Trinity a 32-9 loss in the Saturday finale that set up another outrageous result on Sunday. The Tigers took the finale and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals with a 21-13 victory. Trinity won the series despite being outscored 62-55 in the four games. Heading into the weekend, UT-Dallas is 4-4 to start the season and has lost three of its last four games. The Comets dropped two out of three games in a series against Hardin-Simmons to open American Southwest Conference play, while Trinity won its three-games series against the Cowboys with three close games.

DeSales is 1-2 heading into its Spring Break trip to Texas and will face off against Schreiner University, Southwestern University, and Texas Lutheran University before coming to Trinity's campus on March 8. The Bulldogs were voted fourth in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom preseason poll. Head Coach Tim Neiman is in his 34th season with the team and has topped 800 career wins heading into the season. Trinity Head Coach Tim Scannell came into the 2023 season with 775 career wins since he took over the Tiger program in 1999.

In the Hole: Conference Begins – Austin College (March 17-18)
Trinity will open SCAC play by hosting Austin College for a three-game series that begins Friday, March 17. The teams will then play a Saturday doubleheader to close the weekend. The Tigers have won 31 straight meetings with the 'Roos, dating back to the 2013 season. Austin won three out of four games against Trinity in a stretch from 2012 to 2013, but Trinity has dominated the series since then – including a pair of 16-run wins last year in Sherman, Texas.