HOUSTON – The Trinity baseball team began its final regular season series of the year with a 6-1 road victory against the University of St. Thomas on Friday night. The second game of Friday's doubleheader was suspended in the top of the ninth due to lightning, and will be resumed on Sunday prior to the series finale scheduled for 12:00 p.m.

The Tigers upped their season record to 24-13, which includes a league-best 15-4 mark in conference play. St. Thomas fell to 19-17 overall and 8-10 in SCAC play. Trinity also won for the ninth time in nine games in the series against the Celts, which began when St. Thomas joined the SCAC in 2019-20.

Jack Baker (Sugar Land, Texas / Ridge Point) led the offensive attack by going 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI, accounting for four of the team's six runs scored. Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) drove in a pair of runs as well, while Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) finished with two hits and two runs scored. Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) and Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) also had two hits each.

Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) improved to 8-1 this season after allowing one run on five hits over 5.2 innings pitched, and struck out three batters. Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) got the save by pitching 3.1 shutout innings to close the game, striking out three batters and allowing just two hits.

Trinity and St. Thomas will conclude tonight's suspended game on Sunday, then will finish the series with a full game that was originally scheduled for noon.

The Rundown: Game 1
Other than an unearned run for the Tigers in the top of the first, it was a slow start for both offenses in the opening game of the day. Baker singled and then moved to third on an error, allowing Preston to drive him in with a sacrifice fly to center and a 1-0 Trinity lead.

Neither team scored again until the sixth, though Teer stranded runners at third base in both the first and third innings to keep the Celts off the board early. Teer also got the benefit of a double play to escape some trouble in the fifth and keep the shutout alive.

Pettit drew a leadoff walk to spark the Tiger offense in the sixth, then moved to third on a pair of groundouts. Montrezza delivered a clutch two-out single to right-center to double Trinity's lead to 2-0 heading into the bottom of the inning.

St. Thomas not only picked up a leadoff single in the home half of the sixth, but also eventually chased Teer from the game with two outs in the inning. The Celts got a two-out RBI double to break up the shutout and cut the Tiger lead in half heading into the final three innings.

After neither team did much over the next two frames, Trinity blew the game open with four runs in the top of the inning, collecting four hits and taking advantage of a walk and an error as well.

Montrezza opened the ninth by singling and stealing second, then Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) walked to put two runners on base. The runners moved to second and third with two outs, then Baker knocked in a pair with a two-run single and a 4-1 Tiger lead. Pettit followed with a single to right, then a throwing error trying to catch Baker off of third base scored another run. Preston finished off the scoring with an RBI double and Trinity had a five-run cushion going into the ninth.

After allowing the double to score a run in the sixth, Tiger reliever Martinez retired 10 of the next 12 batters he faced, allowing just a single and a hit batter over the final three innings.

Up Next
Trinity and St. Thomas will finish off the regular season on Sunday afternoon. Following the conclusion of the suspended game, the teams will play the final game of the series. The Tigers will be back in action next weekend at the SCAC Tournament, held May 5-7 in Cleburne, Texas.