SAN ANTONIO – The Trinity University baseball team finishes off its longest road trip of the season over the next week, facing off against No. 24 Southwestern University in a three-game conference series, and wrapping up its regular season series against the University of Texas-Dallas.

The Tigers are 19-10 this season and stand second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference with a record of 10-2 in league play. Trinity is coming off of back-to-back sweeps in conference, taking out both Centenary College and the University of Dallas to push its winning streak to six games. That streak was snapped with a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Concordia University (Texas) on Tuesday night.

Trinity's offense is led by seniors Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) and Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North), who are both hitting .322 this season. Gore has 25 runs scored and 23 RBI to lead the Tigers in both categories, while Montrezza is tied with Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) for the team lead with 29 hits and Holloway is right behind his teammates with a .319 batting average. Montrezza is also second on the team in runs scored (19) and RBI (16) this season.

The pitching staff is led by three starters and two relievers all with an ERA under 3.00 and a combined win-loss record of 16-6. Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) holds a 3-3 record but leads the team in ERA (2.56) after allowing just 13 earned runs (15 overall) in 45.2 innings, and holding opposing hitters to a .188 batting average. Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) leads Trinity with a 6-1 record 51 strikeouts, posting a 2.72 ERA in 49.2 innings of work. Cade McGahan (Davdson, N.C. / Hough) Is 2-1 with a 2.83 ERA in his eight appearances. Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) is holding teams to a .175 batting average this season and is 3-0 with two saves. He is tied with Teer for the team lead with 51 strikeouts this season, reaching that total in just 28.2 innings pitched. Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) is 2-1 with 40 strikeouts in just 25.1 innings and has allowed just eight total earned runs for an ERA of 2.84 this season.

NCAA Rankings: Guess Who's Back?
After a week just outside of the top 25 last week, the Tigers are back in at the No. 23 spot in this week's D3baseball.com poll. Southwestern is also ranked (No. 24) for the first time ever, while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (No. 22) is the only other Region 10 team in the top 25. Birmingham-Southern College remains the top-ranked team in the country with one of its four losses coming at the hands of Trinity in the opening weekend of the season.

Awards and Honors: SCAC Players of the Week & D3baseball.com Team of the Week
Trinity swept the SCAC Player of the Week honors after sweeping Dallas in a three-game weekend series on the road. Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) was named the Hitter of the Week, while Teer picked up his second Pitcher of the Week honor. Teer was also selected to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week for the second time this season.

Nelson finished the series hitting .636 (7-for-11) with seven runs and five RBI. He homered in both games on Friday's doubleheader, going 4-for-5 in the series opener. Nelson also scored three runs in the series finale on Saturday. He is the first Tiger to earn the Hitter of the Week award this season.

Teer tossed eight shutout innings in the series finale against Dallas on Saturday afternoon, leading Trinity to a 10-0 win. He struck out a career-high 12 batters and allowed just two hits to improve to 6-1 this season. Teer is the first Trinity player since Jeremy Wolf in 2016 to be named to the Team of the Week more than once in a year, and he is the first Tiger pitcher to do so.

NCAA Stats Rankings
The Tigers are ranked in the top 25 in NCAA III in several pitching categories this season, including a No. 9 ranking in strikeouts per nine innings. Trinity's staff is also the 10th-best team in the nation in ERA and in hits allowed per nine innings. The staff is also ranked 18th in shutouts nad 21st in walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP). Teer is fifth nationally in wins this season, while also being ranked in the top 50 in strikeouts and WHIP.

Trinity is also fifth nationally in sacrifice flies this season, led by Gore and Hunter Nevilles (Corpus Christi, Texas / Calallen) with four each. Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) is the team leader with 17 stolen bases, which also puts him in the top 35 nationally.

On Deck: Southwestern (Apr. 14-15) and UT-Dallas (Apr. 18)
Trinity and Southwestern meet up for a three-game SCAC series this weekend in Georgetown, Texas. The Tigers hold a 98-57 record in the series during the SCAC era (since 1992), as well as a 40-28 mark on the road against the Pirates. Heading into the weekend, Southwestern (20-6 overall) is atop the SCAC standings with an 8-1 conference record, while Trinity is close behind at 10-2. The winner of the series will be the frontrunner for the SCAC Regular Season title and the top seed for the conference tournament held May 5-7 in Cleburne, Texas.

Tuesday's non-conference game at UT-Dallas will complete a home-and-home regular season series between the two NCAA Playoff teams from a year ago. The Comets defeated Trinity 15-3 just over a month ago in San Antonio, though the Tigers won the best-of-five NCAA Regional series last year in Richardson, Texas.  

On Southwestern
The Pirates are led by two-time All-SCAC honoree Maxwell Mims, who has five doubles, five triples, and three home runs so far this season, adding 24 runs scored and 24 RBI. Landon Durdin is tied with Mims for the most RBI this year and his .416 batting average tops all Southwestern hitters. Josh Endo is hitting at a .377 clip and is tied with Trent Raschke for the team lead with 28 runs scored. James Vaquero has scored 25 runs and is hitting .330, while also leading the team with 16 steals in 17 attempts. The pitching staff is led by J.J. Slack, who holds a 4-1 record and a 2.31 ERA this season. He has struck out a team-best 48 batters in 35 innings of work. Gregory Ferguson is 5-1 this season and has recorded 40 strikeouts in 34.2 innings for the Pirates.

On UT-Dallas
Robert Hines, Dylan Blevins, and Andrew Skivington lead a potent UT-Dallas offense that is averaging nearly eight runs per game this season. Hines leads the way with a .403 batting average along with 22 runs scored and a team-best 34 RBI. Blevins is hitting .366 with 19 runs scored and 24 RBI, while Skivington has scored 38 runs and driven in 28 more with his .365 batting average. He also has seven doubles, seven home runs, and has drawn 21 walks for a .465 on-base percentage. Ryan Vera enters this weekend with a 4-2 overall record along with a 3.97 ERA to lead the Comets. He has recorded 49 strikeouts in 47.2 innings, while teammate Dylan Hugley has 33 strikeouts in 45.0 innings and a record of 3-1 this year.

In the Hole: Schreiner (Apr. 21-22) and UMHB (Apr. 25)
Trinity continues its regular season SCAC schedule by hosting Schreiner in a three-game series April 21-22. The Tigers will also go to Belton, Texas, to complete the home-and-home regular season series against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Tuesday, April 25. The series against Schreiner will be the first home games since April 1 for the Tigers, who will also honor the 2023 Seniors on Saturday.