SAN ANTONIO – The 16th-ranked Tiger baseball team took the second game of this weekend's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series with a 3-1 win over the University of St. Thomas on Friday evening.
Trinity upped its record to 16-7 overall and are tied atop the SCAC standings with a 6-2 conference mark, while the Celts dropped to 8-17 overall and 3-5 in conference. The Tigers also won last night's series opener with a 6-0 shutout.
Jonathan Newman (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) picked up the win in relief to move to 3-0 this season. He threw two shutout innings out of the bullpen, giving up just two hits and recording three strikeouts.
Trajan Lee (Dallas, Texas / John Paull II) got the start and lasted 4.2 innings before giving way to his Tiger teammates. Lee gave up just one hit and recorded four strikeouts, but did walk four batters.
Will Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit) got his third save of the year by pitching the final 2.1 innings, allowing one run on two hits, and striking out six batters.
Trinity's offense was held to just three runs on eight hits and
Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) was the only Tiger with more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-4 with a double.
Kaleb Woodward (San Pedro, Calif. / Palos Verdes Peninsula) came off the bench and went 1-for-2 with two RBI.
A double play for each team in the first three innings helped keep it a scoreless game over the first half of the contest.
Jack Baker (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) doubled to lead off the fifth and came in to score on a single by Woodward just two pitches later. St. Thomas got the next three batters out to keep it to a 1-0 game, though.
Hellings came on with two outs in the seventh, notching his first strikeout to end the inning and strand the tying run at second base. Trinity loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but failed to add to the lead, but Hellings came back in the eighth with two more strikeouts to send the offense back on the field.
Korson Hastings (San Antonio, Texas / Churchill) and
Khalfani Coney (Los Angeles, Calif. / Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences) both walked to open the eighth inning, and both Tigers came around to score to give Trinity a pair of insurance runs. Hastings came around to score on an error, then Woodward drove in his second run of the game with a two-out fielder's choice to finish off the Tiger scoring.
St. Thomas singled to open the ninth, and while Hellings would eventually strike out the side, the Celts also mixed in a stolen base and a single to break up the shutout. Hellings needed just four pitches after the run scored to finish the game with his sixth strikeout.
Up Next
Trinity and St. Thomas will close out the weekend series with another single game on Saturday afternoon, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
