SAN ANTONIO – The Tiger baseball team is headed to Marshall, Texas, this weekend to play in the East Texas Baptist University NCAA Regional Championship Tournament.

Trinity will be the No. 3 seed at the four-team tournament, hosted by top seed East Texas Baptist. The hosts will face No. 4 seed California Lutheran University, while the Tigers go up against No. 2 seed Pacific University (OR).

The Tigers are two weeks removed from winning the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament to clinch its 13th conference title and will make its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Playoffs. Trinity went 3-0 at the tournament, beginning with a 5-2 win over Centenary College on Friday, May 5. The Tigers then knocked off top seed Texas Lutheran University 10-1 to advance to the Championship. The Bulldogs battled back to set up a Sunday rematch with the Tigers, but Trinity prevailed 13-6 to take its first tournament title since the 2019 season.

Trinity is led by a strong pitching staff, which boasts a staff ERA of 3.22 and more than 400 total strikeouts this season. Starter Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) has a 2.31 ERA and a 9-1 record, recording 71 strikeouts in 74.0 innings and holding teams to a .208 batting average against him. Reliever Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) leads the team with a 1.80 ERA to go along with a 4-0 record and six saves. He has a team-leading 75 strikeouts in 45.0 innings and teams hit just .139 against him. Cade McGahan (Davidson, N.C. / Hough) sports a 2.22 ERA and a 6-1 record, striking out 65 batters in his 12 games pitched. Outfielder Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North) paces the offense with a .326 batting average (44-for-135), 11 doubles, 36 runs scored, 28 RBI, a .428 on-base percentage, and 24 stolen bases. Fellow outfielder Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) also has 24 steals this year, scoring 33 runs and driving in 25 more, while drawing 22 walks to push his on-base percentage to .412. Shortstop Michael Montrezza (Los Gatos, Calif. / Leigh) is batting .323 943-for-133) with 30 runs scored and 23 RBI and also holds an on-base percentage of .400.

Awards and Accolades: Tigers With Lots to Celebrate

2023 All-SCAC Teams
On the opening day of the SCAC Tournament, the All-SCAC team was announced and Trinity had 12 players recognized on the teams. Teer led the way as the 2023 SCAC Pitcher of the Year and was joined by Martinez and McGahan on the All-SCAC 1st Team. Earning 2nd Team All-SCAC honors were Gore, Montrezza, pitchers Harrison Durow (Dallas, Texas / Lovejoy) and Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / Alexander), as well as catcher Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock). Honorable Mention All-SCAC players for the Tigers were Peterson, Jack Baker (Sugar Land, Texas / Ridge Point), Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point), and Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland).

SCAC All-Tournament Team
Following the SCAC Championships, Trinity had eight players named to the All-Tournament Team. Teer and Martinez were Trinity's only pitchers on the team, and the Tigers also had three infielders and three outfielders on the team. Montrezza and Baker were joined by Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) on the infield, while Peterson, Gore, and Preston were all picked in the outfield.

Academic Awards: SCAC Elite 19 and CSC Academic All-District
Gore won the SCAC Elite 19 award for the second straight year, becoming the first player in conference history to win the honor in back-to-back years. The honor is bestowed upon the player in the conference with the highest GPA that is also named 1st or 2nd Team All-SCAC in a given year.

There were four Tiger players to earn recognition on the prestigious College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team. Durow received the honor for the second straight year, while Gore earned the award for the fourth time overall and the first in baseball. He is a three-time Academic All-District selection for football and was even a CSC Academic All-American this past fall. Also earning the honors were McGahan and Peterson, who have both been recognized on the SCAC Academic Honor Roll the past two years (the past three seasons for McGahan).

Preview: ETBU Regional (May 19-21)
Trinity has played the three teams at this year's regional just twice in the SCAC era (since 1991). The Tigers defeated East Texas Baptist 12-6 in regular season play in 2018, while also beating Cal Lutheran 1-0 in the 2013 NCAA Regionals held in Austin, Texas. Friday's meeting between Trinity and Pacific will be the first between the two squads.

Scouting #1 ETBU:
The American Southwest Champion East Texas Baptist Tigers have a potent offense that features six players hitting .340 or better and a dominant ace. ETBU lost its opening game of the ASC Tournament, then fought back to the final day and won twice over Hardin-Simmons University to earn the AQ. Ben Lea is batting .434 (66-for-152) with 57 runs scored and 52 RBI. The slugger has hit 12 doubles and 22 home runs among his 66 hits and has drawn 21 walks for a .517 on-base percentage. Jase Jones (11) and Brett Wagner (13) both have hit double-digit homers this season as well, while Wagner and Jase Jones have both hit a team-best 16 doubles. Pitcher Sayers Collins holds a 10-2 record with a 2.25 ERA, pitching 80.0 innings and holding teams to a .182 batting average. He also has 113 strikeouts against just 24 walks on the year.

Scouting #2 Pacific:
Pacific earned an at-large bid after getting upset by Lewis & Clark College on the final day of the Northwest Conference Tournament. After beating L&C earlier in the tournament, Pacific lost 6-4 and 10-7 on the final day to fall short of the conference title. Tyler Quinn leads a potent offense with a .429 batting average (67-for-156) that includes 17 doubles, while also drawing 21 walks for a .505 on-base percentage. Isaac Lovings has 11 doubles and 18 home runs among his 55 hits, driving in a team-leading 56 RBI for the Boxers. Ty Yukomoto has scored 41 runs and stolen 23 bases to lead Pacific in both categories as well. Will Clark is the team's number one pitcher, coming into the weekend with a 2.56 ERA and a 7-2 overall record. Teams hit just .196 against him and he has 57 strikeouts in 66.2 innings.

Scouting #4 Cal Lutheran:
Cal Lutheran lost two out of three games in the final regular season series against Chapman University, but went 3-0 at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament – including 8-3 and 6-2 wins over the favored Panthers – to win the league's AQ. Zach Lafata paces the Kingsmen with a .346 batting average (53-for-153) to go along with 40 runs, 26 RBI, and 21 steals. Clay Rickerman leads the pitching staff with a 2.98 ERA in 27 games out of the bullpen, piling up 34 strikeouts in 48.1 innings, and holding a 3-2 overall record. Luke Wechsler and Chris Torres are a combined 13-6 this season with each player making 13 starts. Wechsler leads the team with 68 strikeouts in 80.2 innings pitched.

Looking Ahead: Super Regionals (May 26-27)
Regardless of which team advances out of this weekend's ETBU Regional, the most likely destination for the Super Regionals will be Birmingham-Southern College. The winner of this weekend's tournament in Marshall will face the winner of the BSC Regional in the next round. Birmingham-Southern spent several weeks as the top-ranked team in the nation, according to the weekly D3baseball.com polls. The NCAA III College World Series will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 2-8.