GEORGETOWN, Texas – The No. 23 Trinity baseball team was swept in a pair of one-run losses at Southwestern University on Saturday, finishing off a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend on the road.
The Tigers fell to 20-12 overall this season and 11-4 in SCAC play, slipping back to a tie for second in the standings. The Pirates reclaimed the top spot in the SCAC standings with the two wins, improving to 22-7 overall and 10-2 in conference play. The game one loss snapped a 12-game win streak for Trinity in the series between the two teams.
Trinity tied game one 2-2 with a run in the eighth inning and the game went into the extra innings still tied. The Tigers scored twice in the 10th to take the lead and were poised to pull off the victory; however, Southwestern followed a leadoff walk with back-to-back RBI hits to tie the game, then won it on an error.
Game two was a classic pitcher's duel with Trinity's
Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) and Southwestern's J.J. Slack battling it out in a 2-1 victory for the Pirates. Durow gave up just two runs on five hits over a seven-inning outing, striking out nine batters. Slack also allowed five hits in a complete-game effort, limiting Trinity to just one run, and striking out 10 batters.
Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif. / Grace Brethren) went 3-for-4 with two walks in the opening game to pace Trinity's offense, while
Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) finished with two of Trinity's five hits in the second game, while
Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) drove in the only run of the game for the Tigers.
Trinity will finish off an eight-game road trip on Tuesday, traveling to the Metroplex to take on the University of Texas-Dallas at 3:00 p.m.
The Rundown, Game 1
The first game also started with Trinity's
Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) and Southwestern's Stephen Rutherford tossing four shutout innings at the start. Trinity's best scoring chance in the early innings came in the top of the third.
Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) doubled to lead things off, then Tinker walked to put two runners on with no outs. Rutherford wiggled out of trouble and kept the Tigers from breaking through for the game's first run. The third was also a solid chance for the Pirates as the first two batters of the inning scored infield singles, but Teer got a pair of ground balls and a strikeout to escape trouble of his own.
Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) was hit by a pitch to open the fifth and Pettit drove hi in for the first run of the game. Southwestern answered in the bottom of the sixth to tie things up, while also chasing Teer from the game.
Southwestern scored on a passed ball after a leadoff walk in the second, taking a 2-1 lead with just two innings remaining. Montrezza was hit by a pitch in the top of the eighth to set up
Hunter Nevilles (Corpus Christi, Texas / Calallen) for an RBI single that tied the game.
Tinker singled and moved to third with just one out in the ninth, but Trinity came away empty and the game went into extra innings. The Tigers got their two runs in the 10th on Peterson's two-run single to take control of the game, but Southwestern rallied for the win to even the weekend series.
The Rundown, Game 2
Trinity had a promising start to game two as Gore drew a leadoff walk and Harris singled to put the first two hitters on base. The Tigers came up empty, though, and Southwestern made them pay immediately with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-0 lead.
The Tigers had runners on base in each of the first five innings but failed to score until the eighth. Another leadoff walk for Gore led to an RBI double by Pettit that made it just a one-run game with one out in the inning. Slack then struck out the next two Trinity hitters to maintain the slim lead, then got a 1-2-3 ninth to finish off the win.
Up Next
The Tigers will travel to Richardson, Texas, for the final game of the regular season home-and-home series with the University of Texas-Dallas. The teams clash on Tuesday, April 18, at 3:00 p.m. Trinity returns home for a three-game SCAC series with Schreiner that begins on Friday, April 21.
