MARSHALL, Texas – The Trinity baseball team survived a comeback bid by Pacific University (OR) in the opening game of the NCAA III Playoffs on Friday evening, as Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) hit a 10th-inning grand slam to lift the team to a 13-10 victory.

The Tigers (29-14) led 8-0 after four innings, but the Boxers (28-19) rallied to tie things up 8-8 in the bottom of the seventh. Trinity pulled back in front with a run in the eighth, but Pacific forced extra innings by scoring a run in the ninth.

Trinity loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the 10th for Holloway, and he redirected a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left field to give the Tigers a 13-9 cushion. It was the only hit of the game for Holloway, who did drive in a team-leading five runs for Trinity.

Jack Martinez (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) earned the win in relief and improved to 5-0. He struck out three batters over the final 3.1 innings, including a pair of strikeouts with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth to keep the game going.

Jack Baker (Sugar Land, Texas / Ridge Point) went 4-for-6 with two RBI and three runs scored, while Tyler Pettit (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) was 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBI. Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) and Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) had two hits each to add to Trinity's stat line. Peterson also scored two runs, as did Ezra Gore (Dallas, Texas / McKinney North). Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) also had a pair of hits in the game for the Tigers.

Trinity advances to face host East Texas Baptist University in tomorrow's action, beginning at 2:30 p.m. ETBU won 16-6 over California Lutheran University to start this weekend's regional tournament.

The Rundown
Trinity's offense was firing on all cylinders early in the game, beginning with a three-run first inning. After Gore was hit by the third pitch of the game, Baker and Pettit hit back-to-back singles to score the opening run. Preston bunted the runners over for the first out, then Holloway made it 2-0 on a ground ball to the right side of the infield. Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) drove in the final run of the inning with his single to score Pettit.

Trinity starter Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) matched the offense's start with three straight outs in the first, then allowed just one hit over the first four innings. That also included a pair of inning-ending double plays to keep Pacific scoreless through four.

In the meantime, Pettit made it 4-0 with a leadoff homer down the left field line in the third, then the Tigers added four more runs in the fourth to make it 8-0. Harris and Peterson singled to start the fourth, then Gore walked to load the bases. Baker doubled in a pair of runs, then Pettit lifted a sacrifice fly to right for another score. Baker came in to score on a passed ball before the Boxers got out of the inning.

A leadoff walk in the fifth led to the first troublesome inning for Teer. Pacific got a second runner on with two outs and the Boxers hit a three-run homer to make it an 8-3 game. The Tigers left a pair of runners on in the sixth and Pacific took advantage in the bottom half of the inning with four more runs. Another homer early in the inning made it 8-5, then three more hits brought it two more scores to cut the lead to just one at 8-7.

After Trinity went down in order in the seventh, Pacific once again seized the opportunity and tied things up with another run in the seventh. This time, though, Trinity got back in the scoring column to reclaim the lead. Baker started a two-out rally with a single to center, then moved to second on a wild pitch. After a walk to Pettit, Preston drove in Baker for the go-ahead run.

Pacific got a single and a walk to start the bottom of the ninth, then an RBI double tied things up 9-9 with no outs. The Boxers then loaded the bases on a hit batter and were poised to pull off the unlikely comeback. Martinez got an infield pop-up to third and a strikeout to the next two batters. The final at-bat ended in controversy as Pacific was called out on a 2-2 pitch for a time clock violation that sent the game to the 10th.

Peterson led off the 10th with a single to right, but the next two batters got out. Pettit walked on four straight pitches, then Preston fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches to draw another walk to load the bases for Holloway. Following a pitching change, Holloway hit his game-changing homer to win it.

Pacific got a triple and scored a run in the bottom half, but the tying run never came to the plate and Martinez finished things off to push Trinity into the winner's bracket game.

Up Next
Trinity will meet up with hosting East Texas Baptist at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The winner advances to Sunday's Regional Championship, while the loser will play one final elimination game on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.