SAN ANTONIO – The 17th-ranked Tiger baseball team began a busy week of action at home with a 6-3 loss to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Tuesday night.

Trinity fell to 5-3 this season with the loss, which is the third in the last four against UMHB. The Crusaders, who received votes in the latest D3baseball.com poll, improved to 10-1 this season with the win. The teams will face each other again later this season in Belton, Texas.

Starting pitcher Jack Briese (Danville, Ky. / Boyle County) was charged with the loss and fell to 0-1 this season. He allowed five runs (four earned) over 3.1 innings, striking out three batters. Relievers Trajan Lee (Dallas, Texas / John Paul II) and Jonathan Newman (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) allowed just one run on three hits over the final 5.2 innings, combining for five more strikeouts.

Mary Hardin-Baylor got on the board quickly with a run in the first, then added another in the third to take a 2-0 lead. A three-run fourth inning for the visitors opened up a big lead, and the Cru pitchers held the Tiger offense hitless into the sixth inning.

Trinity got runners on base for the first time in the fourth inning, but a double play was followed by a lineout to left stranded the first chance for a Tiger score. The sixth inning began with Cam Champness (Katy, Texas / Taylor) getting hit by a pitch, then Jack Peterson (Round Rock, Texas / Round Rock) drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. An error brought home the first run of the game for Trinity and still left two runners on base. After a flyout to left, Pierce Matthews (Carrollton, Texas / Hebron) was caught stealing on a double steal for the second out. Another error led to another run scored for the Tigers, then Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif. / Grace Brethren) smashed a double into the gap in left-center for the first hit of the game for Trinity, driving in Mattias Rytting (Houston, Texas / Bellaire) to make it a 5-3 game.

Newman struck out the side in the seventh to keep the momentum going for Trinity, but a leadoff walk came around to add another run for UMHB in the eighth to make it a 6-3 game. The Tigers had base runners in each of the final three innings, but couldn't break through for any more runs. Trinity had a leadoff walk in the ninth, but the Cru retired the next three batters in order to close out the win.

Up Next

Trinity will face DeSales University (PA) on Thursday, March 7, at 7:00 p.m. The Tigers will also host Centenary College and the University of Texas-Dallas over the weekend.