SAN ANTONIO – Trinity's baseball team makes its return home this weekend to take on Schreiner University for a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series, before going back on the road for a game at Mary Hardin-Baylor on Tuesday.

The Tigers opened last weekend's SCAC series at No. 24 Southwestern with a 5-2 win on Friday night, but the Pirates bounced back with a pair of one-run wins to take over first place in the standings. Trinity is now 11-4 in conference play, which is tied for second in the standings with Texas Lutheran University. The Tigers also lost an 8-3 non-conference game at University of Texas-Dallas on Tuesday to fall to 20-13 overall this season.

Trinity's pitching staff is led by a main core of five players who have posted ERAs under 3.00 this season. Sophomore Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) is 6-1 with a 2.60 ERA, striking out 53 batters in 55.1 innings. Senior Cade McGahan (Davidson, N.C. / Hough) is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 46 strikeouts, while junior Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) holds a 2.90 ERA to go with a 3-4 record, recording 49 strikeouts, and holding the opposition to a .183 batting average. Sophomore reliever Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) and junior reliever Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) have both pitched in 32.1 innings and hold an ERA of 2.51 and 2.78, respectively. Martinez also leads the team with 59 strikeouts and an opposing batting average of .157 on the year.

Offensively, senior Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) holds a .314 batting average and 32 total hits to lead the team. Senior Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) has driven in 24 RBI to go with 27 runs scored and leads the team in both categories. His 14 steals are second only to junior Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) and his 19 stolen bases in 19 attempts. Though sophomore Michael Lustina (Austin, Texas / Westlake) and junior Hunter Nevilles (Corpus Christi, Texas / Calallen) haven't played in enough games to qualify for the top spot on the team, both are hitting better than .350 this season.

NCAA Stats Rankings
The Tiger pitching staff enters this weekend as the 13th-best team in NCAA III in ERA, 10th in hits allowed per nine innings, and ranked ninth in strikeouts per nine innings. The offense is ranked seventh in sacrifice flies.

Teer is 15th in NCAA III with his six wins this year, as well as ranking 29th in WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). Chavana and Martinez are also ranked 40th in the nation in hits allowed per nine innings and strikeouts, respectively. Peterson's 19 steals also put him in the top 40 in the country this season.

On Deck: Schreiner (Apr. 21-22) and UMHB (Apr. 25)
During the SCAC era (since 1992), Trinity holds a 50-19 record in the series against Schreiner, which includes eight wins in the last nine meetings and a regular season series sweep last year in Kerrville, Texas. The last time the teams met in San Antonio, Schreiner snagged an 8-7 extra-inning win to finish off the 2021 regular season series. Against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Trinity has an overall record of 29-11, but the Crusaders are looking to sweep the regular season series after picking up a 4-3 win in San Antonio earlier this year.

On Schreiner:
The Mountaineers are 15-18 overall and 4-11 in SCAC play this season, currently seventh in the standings. Schreiner took the series opener against Texas Lutheran, but lost the next two games and was swept by Centenary in Shreveport.

Gerardo Cardoza is hitting .439 (54-for-123) this season and leads the nearest teammates by more than 100 percentage points, adding 25 runs scored and 21 RBI. Chance Goins edges Cardoza for the team lead with 26 runs, while Joseph DiCarlo has five homers and 29 RBI to lead the Mountaineers in both. Luke Rogers and Brandon Cardenas have four wins each and hold a combined 8-3 record this season. The duo has also recorded a combined 50 strikeouts and Cardenas has allowed just eight walks in just over 38 innings. Devin Hooper has 37 strikeouts in 37.0 innings pitched to lead the team.

On UMHB:
The Cru is 12-17 overall this year and 7-14 in American Southwest Conference play. UMHB will be on the road at the University of the Ozarks in more conference action this weekend, prior to returning to host the Tigers on Tuesday.

Rhett Grosz leads the team with a .333 (35-for-105) batting average that includes 10 doubles and three home runs, along with a team-best 21 RBI. Tyler Betts has 19 runs scored along with 16 stolen bases and a .425 on-base percentage to lead the team in all three categories. Andrew Acierni leads the team with four wins on the mound for UMHB, striking out 30 batters and yielding just eight walks. Nicklas Fenner's 31 strikeouts are tops on the team, while Bryce Farlander leads the way with a 2.40 ERA.

In the Hole: Regular Season Finale at St. Thomas (Apr. 28-29)
Trinity will close out the regular season next weekend by traveling to Houston to take on University of St. Thomas. The Celts are entering this weekend in fifth place in the SCAC standings and are just two games out of a fourth-place spot that could put them in the conference tournament. The Tigers won all five meetings between the two teams last year, including all three regular season matchups at Trinity and both games the teams met in the SCAC Tournament.