SAN ANTONIO – The Tiger baseball team will close out the regular season by facing off against the University of St. Thomas this weekend in Houston, Texas.

Trinity enters this weekend with a 23-13 overall record and a 14-4 mark in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, which has the team tied for first place heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The Tigers swept a three-game series from Schreiner last weekend, which was the fourth time that Trinity has swept a conference series this year.

The Tigers have been led by their pitching this season and the team ranks in the top 20 in NCAA III in several categories. Trinity is 11th as a team with an ERA of 3.34 and is in the top 10 in hits per nine innings allowed and strikeouts per nine innings. The Tiger staff is also 20th in both shutouts and walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) as a team.

Senior Cade McGahan (Davidson, N.C. / Hough) threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout to beat Schreiner last weekend and he is now 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA. Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander) is holding opponents to a batting average of .185 and has recorded 49 strikeouts for the Tigers. Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) is up to 54 strikeouts in just 37.0 innings and he ranks 11th in NCAA III in strikeouts per nine innings (13.14). Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) is 10th in the country in wins, posting a 7-1 record and a 2.45 ERA this season. His 62 strikeouts are second on the team and he also leads the Tigers with a WHIP of 0.91 that ranks 19th nationally. Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) is the NCAA III leader in strikeouts per nine innings (16.2) and he is also fourth in the country in hits allowed per nine innings (4.42). Martinez leads Trinity with a 2.21 ERA to go along with a 4-0 record and three saves. He is also the team's leader with 66 strikeouts in 36.2 innings and has held the opposition to a .140 batting average.

Offensively, Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Hough) is batting a team-best .327 (36-for-110) with 24 runs scored and 20 RBI. Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) leads the team with 30 runs scored and 25 RBI, drawing 19 walks to push his on-base percentage to .399, and recorded 15 steals in 17 attempts. Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) is leading the Tigers with a .419 on-base percentage and 21 stolen bases. Hunter Nevilles (Corpus Christi, Texas / Calallen) and Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) are also hitting better than .360 this season, albeit in less at-bats. Preston is also sporting a .481 on-base percentage this year.

Preview: St. Thomas (Apr. 28 & 30)
Trinity and St. Thomas will meet for just the third year after the Celts joined the SCAC in 2019-20, with the Tigers having won all eight previous meetings. Trinity won three games in Houston in 2021, followed by three home games in the regular season last year. The teams also met twice in the 2022 SCAC Tournament, with the Tigers winning 11-6 and 11-1 in those matchups.

While the Tigers have qualified for the SCAC Tournament already, St. Thomas is just outside of the top four and will almost certainly need to win all three games against Trinity to have a shot to make the tournament this year. The Celts enter the weekend with a 19-16 overall record and an 8-9 mark in league play.

St. Thomas took two out of three in the first SCAC series of the year against Schreiner, but were then swept by both Southwestern and Texas Lutheran. The Celts split with Centenary before sweeping Dallas, and then took two out of three against Austin College last weekend. The third game against Centenary was postponed

Senior Cameron McClure leads a group of four St. Thomas players hitting .320 or better this season, holding a .336 batting average (44-for-131) to go with 28 runs scored and 21 RBI. Mason Seay is batting .327 (35-for-107) with 10 doubles, while Jeffrey Williams has also had 10 doubles and leads the team with 35 RBI. Kadin Munson has a 3-1 record to go with a team-leading 3.08 ERA for the Celts this year, recording 57 strikeouts in 49.2 innings of work. Landon Murray has 53 strikeouts in his 10 starts and holds a record of 5-4.

Looking Ahead: SCAC Tournament in Cleburne, TX (May 5-7)
Trinity has already qualified for the SCAC Tournament in Cleburne, Texas, and the final weekend of the year will determine final seeding. The Tigers are tied with Texas Lutheran in first, though the Bulldogs hold the tiebreaker after winning two of three meetings this season. Southwestern is third with a 12-4 record and Centenary is fourth at 10-7 so far this year. The double-elimination tournament begins on Friday, and concludes with Sunday's Championship game. Centenary defeated Trinity 10-5 to win last year's conference title, while Texas Lutheran beat the Tigers 16-15 (10 innings) to win in 2021. Trinity won in 2019 over TLU by a final of 6-5. The winner of the tournament receives the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.