SAN ANTONIO – Trinity's 19th-ranked baseball team will continue its streak of games away from home this weekend, before returning home to begin a short home stand early next week.
After starting the year with a 1-3 record, Trinity has gone 11-3 since – including a 3-0 start to Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play that puts Trinity on top of the conference standings. The Tigers swept its three-game series against Austin College to begin SCAC play, but lost 9-5 in its first road game of the season at McMurry on Tuesday. Trinity will play 10 of its next 14 games on the road and Tuesday's home game against University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will be the last non-conference home game of the regular season.
The Tigers are led offensively by senior
Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney), who is hitting .333 (17-for-51) with 15 runs scored and 11 RBI – leading the team in all three categories. Junior
Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) is leading Trinity with 10 walks and 12 steals, as well as hitting .313 (15-for-48) with 10 runs scored. Senior
Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) is tied for the team lead with 17 hits and joins Gore and Peterson as a third player with 10 or more runs scored.
Along with Teer, juniors
Cade McGahan (Davidson, N.C. / Hough) and
Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) are Trinity's top starting pitchers this season. McGahan has an ERA of 0.99 in his five appearances and has 28 strikeouts in 27.1 innings of work. Chavana leads the team with 35 strikeouts in 34.2 innings, posting an ERA of 1.67 and holding opponents to a batting average of .167. Teer leads the team with a 4-1 record to go with 28 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA. Junior
Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) and sophomore
Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) have been the team's top relievers, combining for 57 strikeouts in 31 innings and holding a 4-1 record.
National Rankings: D3baseball.com
Trinity held firm at No. 19 in the latest D3baseball.com poll and has been in the top 20 nationally all season long. Birmingham-Southern College (Ala.) remains the top-ranked team in NCAA III, though Eastern Connecticut State University and Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) moved to second and third, respectively.
Awards and Honors: Teer Wins Conference and National Honors
Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Reagan) piled up the awards this week, beginning with being named the SCAC Pitcher of the Week – the first conference weekly honor awarded to the Tigers this season. Teer tossed the 12th no-hitter in school history and the first solo no-hitter since the 2017 season, recording nine strikeouts in Saturday's 10-0 win over Austin College. That performance also earned him a spot on the D3baseball.com Team of the Week, marking the first Trinity player to earn that distinction since 2020. The accolades for Teer didn't stop there, though, as the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association honored him as the Division III National Pitcher of the Week. He is just the fourth Trinity player ever to win the award and the first since 2016 – the last being former Tiger outfielder and current assistant coach, Andrew Waters.
On Deck: Texas Lutheran (Mar. 24-26) and UMHB (Mar. 28)
Trinity begins a three-game SCAC series with Texas Lutheran University on Friday at 6:00 p.m., then will play on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The Tigers will then host UMHB on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
Texas Lutheran leads the overall series against Trinity with a 40-38 record, though Trinity is 23-17 in the series since the Bulldogs joined the SCAC in 2014. The teams have each won 12 games in conference play, while the Tigers have won eight of the 12 meetings in the SCAC Tournament. Trinity is also just 14-20 on the road in Seguin, which is the site of this year's series.
Trinity is 29-10 against Mary Hardin-Baylor during the SCAC era (since 1991) and has won eight of the last nine meetings between the two teams. The Tigers have not lost a home game in the series since 2009 – a streak of 12 consecutive games.
Preview: Texas Lutheran
Texas Lutheran is 8-11 overall this season and 1-2 after the first conference series of the year. The Bulldogs lost the first two games of a road series at Centenary College (La.), then won the finale in extra innings to avoid the sweep. Texas Lutheran is led by Aric Vasquez and Tyler Post. Vasquez is hitting .338 to lead the team, while Post has three home runs and 23 RBI for the Bulldogs. Joe Burch has recorded a team-best 33 strikeouts in 28.1 innings pitched, while Diego Vinton holds a 2.95 ERA with 18 strikeouts.
Preview: Mary Hardin-Baylor
Mary Hardin-Baylor is 4-9 so far this season and has a 3-6 record in American Southwest Conference play. The Cru won two out of three games in its last ASC series on the road against McMurry, and will be on the road against at East Texas Baptist University this weekend before coming to Trinity. Hunter Jones holds a .364 batting average to pace UMHB, adding seven runs and a team-best 10 RBI. Rhett Grosz is hitting .327 with seven runs and nine RBI, while leading the team with five doubles. Reliever Nicklas Fenner holds a 1-1 record in five appearances, leading the team with a 1.32 ERA. Andrew Acierni is the top starter for the Cru with a 2-1 record and a 3.15 ERA. He is tied with James McGlumphy for the team lead with 17 strikeouts.
In the Hole: Centenary (Mar. 31-Apr. 2)
Trinity will make its home debut in conference play against Centenary College on March 31. The Tigers and Gents open the series on Friday at 6:00 p.m., then will play a doubleheader on Saturday, April 1, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Last year, the Tigers won two out of three games on the road against Centenary; however, the Gents won two out of three matchups against Trinity to win the SCAC Tournament.
