SAN ANTONIO – Senior Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) launched a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the 14th-ranked Tiger baseball team to a 6-5 win over Texas Lutheran University on Saturday afternoon.

The two teams have now split the first two games of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference weekend series, with the deciding game coming up tomorrow. Trinity improved to 23-8 this season overall and 11-3 in SCAC play, while the Bulldogs fell to 19-12, 8-6 SCAC with the loss.

Trinity led for more than half the game, but TLU rallied with three runs in the sixth, followed by two more scores in the seventh to take a 5-2 lead. The Tigers tied things up with three runs in the bottom of the seventh, which eventually led to extra innings.

Holloway's walkoff round-tripper was his only hit of the day, though he did have a sacrifice fly that tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Kaleb Woodward (San Pedro, Calif. / Palos Verdes Peninsula) finished with two hits and three RBI, while Alex Monson (Houston, Texas / Memorial) and Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) also had two hits each in the game. Maddox McDonald (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) went 1-for-1 with two walks and two runs scored.

Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) got the start, but wound up with a no-decision despite recording 11 strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work. He allowed just three hits and one unearned run (three runs total). Will Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit) got the win in relief, moving to 2-0 this season after striking out seven batters of his own in 4.1 innings.

The Rundown

After getting shut out in yesterday's series opener, Trinity got on the board first as Woodward sliced a home run to left field that bounced off the top of the fence and over for a 1-0 lead. Woodward also drove in the second run of the day with a two-out single to right in the fifth inning. McDonald singled and stole second, then cruised to the plate on Woodward's hit.

Texas Lutheran nearly started with a big inning, getting two runners on with no outs in the top of the inning. Instead, Teer got three straight outs – including two strikeouts to keep the visitors from taking the early advantage. Teer got at least one strikeout in all six innings he pitched, striking out the side in the second. The leadoff hitter was the only TLU batter to get a hit until the sixth inning, which came after Woodward made it 2-0.

After striking out the first batter in the sixth, Teer yielded a walk and a steal, then a sharp single through the infield got Texas Lutheran on the board at 2-1. Teer got another strikeout for the second out, but then gave up an infield single and another walk to load the bases. He nearly escaped with the lead, but two errors on the same play allowed two more runs to score and put the visitors in front 3-2. Hellings came in and ended the inning with a strikeout.

Lazzara singled to start off the bottom of the inning, but a double play kept Trinity from building any momentum, and the Tigers remained one run down. Hellings got into a jam in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with a two-out walk. An infield single brought in a run, then a hit batter sent another to the plate before Hellings finally escaped with a popup on the infield.

Trinity drew two walks and a hit batter to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh, then Woodward brought in his third RBI of the day with a walk. Mattias Rytting (Houston, Texas / Bellaire) also drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 5-4. Holloway drilled a full-count pitch to the wall in left field, and the line drive tied the game on a sacrifice fly. The Bulldogs escaped the inning with the game still tied, but Trinity had just tied the game with three runs without even getting a hit to take back the momentum of the game.

McDonald drew a leadoff walk and made it to third with two outs in the ninth, but he was stranded there and the game went to extra innings. Hellings gave up a leadoff single in the eighth, then retired the next nine batters he faced – including three straight strikeouts in the 10th to set up the Holloway homer to win it.

Up Next

Trinity and Texas Lutheran will conclude the weekend with game three of the series, scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.