SHREVEPORT, La. – The ninth-ranked Tiger baseball team split a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Centenary College on Saturday afternoon, earning a weekend series win to close out the regular season schedule.
Trinity finishes the regular season with a 30-10 overall record after following game one's 14-3 loss with a 5-1 victory to clinch the series. The Tigers are also 16-5 in conference play to secure the SCAC Regular Season Championship and the top seed for next weekend's SCAC Tournament.
The two teams opened the day with three runs each in the first inning of game one, setting up what looked like a slugfest. Unfortunately for Trinity, that first inning was the end of their scoring for the game. Meanwhile, Centenary took the lead with a run in the fourth, then blew the game wide open with a seven-run fifth inning. The Gents added three more runs in the sixth for good measure, handing the Tigers their first double-digit loss since early February against 22nd-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Centenary got off to another good start in game two, stealing the early lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning.
Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) tied things up for the Tigers in the top of the second, though, lacing an RBI double into the gap in right-center.
Cristian Holloway (Brownsville, Texas / Veterans Memorial) scored the tying run after starting the inning with a leadoff walk.
Trinity starter
Jackson Teer (San Antonio, Texas / Johnson) settled in nicely after the first inning, finishing just two outs shy of the complete game. Teer allowed just the one run on six hits over his 8.1 innings of work, striking out seven batters and issuing just one walk to improve to 7-1 on the season.
The offense got a lead for Teer in the fourth inning, as Preston smashed another double into the same outfield gap to drive in the go-ahead run with two outs. Preston also came around to score on the play, which featured two errors by Centenary, and put Trinity in front 3-1. The Tigers tacked on two more runs in the seventh, beginning with a solo homer off the bat of
Colt Harris (Katy, Texas / Houston Christian). A few batters later, Preston came up again with two runners on base, and once again delivered a run-scoring hit to make it 5-1.
Teer responded to getting the lead by retiring 13 of 14 batters during a stretch from the fifth until the ninth inning. After getting the first out of the final frame, he hit a batter to put just the second runner on base for Centenary over the final four innings.
Jonathan Newman (Pearland, Texas / Pearland) came out of the bullpen and got two quick outs to slam the door on the Gents.
Preston finished 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI to highlight the offensive attack for the Tigers. Holloway was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two walks to reach base four different times, while
Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif. / Grace Brethren) also had a pair of hits. The Trinity trio accounted for seven of the 11 hits in game two for the Tigers.
Up Next
Trinity will head into the SCAC Tournament next weekend as the top seed, beginning play at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 3. The tournament will be held at La Moderna Field in Cleburne, Texas.
