SAN ANTONIO – Trinity's 12th-ranked baseball team rallied from an early deficit to earn an 8-5 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference victory over Southwestern University on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers improved to 11-4 overall and 2-0 in conference play, which began with last night's 5-2 win over the Pirates. Southwestern dropped to 7-10 overall and 0-2 in SCAC, and Trinity can go for a weekend series sweep tomorrow.
Southwestern took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, but Trinity answered with a five-run home half of the third inning to pull in front. The Pirates tied the game in the next inning, but the Tigers took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth when
Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) hit a two-out homer over the wall in left field. Lazzara finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and the long ball was his only RBI in the game.
Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian) was the only other Tiger player with more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-3 with one RBI and two runs scored.
Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) and
Jack Baker (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) drove in two runs each for Trinity.
Jack Briese (Danville, Ky. / Boyle County) came out of the bullpen in the third inning to earn the win, improving his record to 1-1 this season. He struck out four batters over 2.2 innings before giving way to
Jonathan Newman (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) and
Trajan Lee (Dallas, Texas / John Paull II). Newman threw 2.1 shutout innings, striking out a pair of batters and giving up two hits. Lee didn't give up a run over the final 1.2 innings to earn his first save of the year.
The Rundown
Trinity allowed baserunners in each of the first two innings, but Southwestern was held scoreless to that point. The Tigers turned a big double play after a leadoff single in the second, then got a strikeout to end the inning.
The Tigers gave up a walk to start the third, then an error on a sac bunt put two runners on with no outs. Another walk two batters later loaded the bases and the Pirates took advantage with a two-run double to take the lead. Briese came into the game after that, and while Southwestern got an unearned run on a wild pitch, he also got a strikeout to end the inning down.
A one-out error by Southwestern put a runner on third with one out in the bottom of the third, then Trinity hit back-to-back doubles to make it a 3-2 game. Two batters later, Holloway launched a two-run homer to put Trinity in front 4-3. The Tigers then drew four consecutive walks as Baker picked up an RBI by taking a free base with the bases loaded. Southwestern fell behind 5-3 at that point, but the Tigers did leave the bases loaded.
The Pirates tied things up with three straight two-out hits in the fourth inning, but Lazzara's two-out roundtripper in the bottom of the inning put Trinity back in front 6-5. The Tigers loaded the bases again in the sixth, and while Baker got another RBI with a sac fly to score Harris from third, the Pirates got out of the inning with just the one run allowed.
Newman came in for Briese in the sixth and pitched around a walk and a single to keep the two-run lead, then Lazzara doubled and scored on an error to make it 8-5 in the bottom of the inning. The Pirates had runners on in the seventh and eighth, but couldn't chip away at the lead. A leadoff single and a walk brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Lee got a double play ball to take the air out of the rally. The final out came with a Southwestern runner getting caught trying to score on a wild pitch.
Up Next
The Tigers and Pirates will close out the weekend with the SCAC series finale tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.
