TO READ THE FULL PREVIEW, CLICK ON THE "TIGER BASEBALL VS SOUTHWESTERN PROGRAM" LINK
 
No. 12 Tiger Baseball starts their first round of conference play against Southwestern.
 
The Tigers (9-4) went 4-2 in their busy week last week. Trinity lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor 3-6 but then went on to out-score their next four opponents 31-10. The Tigers ended their busy week with a close 7-5 loss to nationally-ranked East Texas Baptist. The Tigers put up two impressive pitching performances. In a tough 1-0 victory over UT-Dallas, Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas / J.B. Alexander) went 7 innings with eight strikeouts. In their Sunday victory against UTD, Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) would go 5.1 innings, only allowing two hits and fanning eight hitters. Against ETBU, senior Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) launched three solo home runs and collected four RBIs. The Tiger offense is now batting a team total of .277 with 13 home runs, which is tied for 10th in the country. 
 
Preview - Conference Opener
 
The Tigers will play their first conference series against Southwestern on Friday, March 15th at 7:00 PM. Then the Tigers will play the next day at 2:00 PM and then finish off the series on Sunday at 1:00 PM.
 
On the Southwestern Pirates: Trinity's SCAC Rival Southwestern is 7-6 so far this season. The Pirates were on a five-game skid but are 3-1 in their last four. Southwestern is struggling to get the offense going as they are batting .234 and only three guys batting over .300 for the season. The Pirates have also struggled to find consistent pitching this season but junior Greg Ferguson is starting to emerge as their ace as he has thrown 14 innings and has a 2.57 ERA. Offensively, the Tigers will have to watch out for senior outfielder Maxwell Mims, who is batting .364 with four home runs. All time, the Tigers are 97-63 against Southwestern.
 
Key To The Game
 
Stop 'Em At The Top: Southwestern will have a very top-heavy lineup with Mims and two others that are batting above .300. If Trinity can neutralize the top of the Pirate lineup, they will be in very good shape to put them away early. The Tigers will look to the starting rotation to pitch them backwards to keep them off balance from start to finish. 
 
Looking Ahead
 
The Tigers will have another busy week, starting with Concordia (TX) on Tuesday, March 19th.