AUSTIN, Texas – The 15th-ranked Trinity University baseball team opened a three-game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference road weekend with a 3-2 win over Concordia University (TX) on Friday night.
The Tigers remain unbeaten at 7-0 with the win and all seven games have been against SCAC opponents. The Tornados fell to 8-3 overall and 4-3 in conference with the loss, which snapped a four-game winning streak. Trinity improves to 18-15 in the series against Concordia, though this is the first conference meeting between the two programs.
Brandon Morio (Austin, Texas / McNeil) picked up the win in relief for the Tigers, improving to 1-0 this season. He threw 2.1 shutout innings and struck out five of the nine batters he faced.
Jake Beck (Austin, Texas / Austin) got the start, yielding one run on four hits over the first 4.2 innings of the game, matching Morio for the team lead with five strikeouts.
Will Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit) secured his second save of the year with four strikeouts over the final two innings, allowing one run on one hit.
Maddox McDonald (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) went 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored, while
Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif. / Grace Brethren) was 1-for-3 with a solo home run – his first round-tripper of the season. Tinker's home run was the first run of the game and put Trinity up 1-0 in the top of the second inning.
Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) followed the McDonald triple with an RBI single through the left side of the infield to put the Tigers up 2-0 at the time. Concordia managed to limit the damage with an inning-ending double play two batters later.
In the bottom of the fourth, a leadoff double led to the first run of the game for Concordia to cut the lead to 2-1, but Trinity answered immediately in the top of the fifth.
Khalfani Coney (Los Angeles, Calif. / Crossroads School) got the inning started win an infield single, then made his way home on a ground out, a wild pitch, and another ground out – this time giving an RBI to
Callen Singhania (Dallas, Texas / Jesuit College Prep) that turned out to be the difference in the game.
Morio came into the game in the next half-inning after Beck issued a walk with two outs. A walk and a wild pitch from Morio put the go-ahead run in scoring position, but the Tiger hurler got a strikeout to end the threat and keep Trinity up 3-1. McDonald picked up his second hit in the sixth but was erased on a double play, then Singhania singled to center in the eighth and those were the only baserunners for either team until the bottom of the eighth.
Hellings took the mound after the first Concordia batter of the eighth reached on an error, getting a pop-up and two strikeouts to send the game to the ninth. After the Tigers went in order in the ninth, Concordia drew a leadoff walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Hellings got two more strikeouts and nearly got out of the inning undamaged, but Concordia doubled in a run with two outs to make it a 3-2 game with the tying run on second. Hellings closed the game by getting a ground ball out to first and the Tigers escaped with the win.
Up Next
Trinity and Concordia continue the weekend series with game two on Saturday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday with another Noon start. The Tigers will complete a stretch of seven straight road games at Hardin-Simmons University (TX) in Abilene, Texas, on Wednesday, March 5, at 5:00 p.m.
