SAN ANTONIO – The seventh-ranked Trinity University baseball team suffered an 11-3 loss in the opening game of a four-game series against #24 SUNY Cortland on Thursday night.

The Tigers (13-3) were on their heels from the start as the Red Dragons (6-5) scored twice in the first and four more times in the second to take an early 6-0 lead. Cortland never looked back after that, increasing the lead to as high as 10-0 by the fifth inning. Trinity was limited to just three runs on nine hits, though two of the runs and three of the hits came in the ninth inning when the game was all but decided.

Joey Hagen (San Clemente, Calif. / Santa Margarita Catholic) got the starting nod for Trinity, but was pulled in the second inning and fell to 0-1 on the year. He was one of seven Tiger pitcher used in the game, with John McGowan (Bethesda, Md. / Whitman), Kyle Hoggatt (San Antonio, Texas / Reagan), and Sean McDermott (San Diego, Calif. / Cathedral Catholic) the only hurlers not to allow any runs. That trio combined to allow just two hits and McDermott picked up two strikeouts in the ninth.

Pierce Matthews (Carrollton, Texas / Hebron) and Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) combined for five of Trinity's nine hits in the game. Matthews went 3-for-4 with a run scored, while Nelson was 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth. The only other runs came in the ninth, as Grant Anderson (Austin, Texas / Vista Ridge) led off with a single that was followed by the final hit of the night for Matthews. John Ramsey (Austin, Texas / Westwood) drove in a run on a groundout to short, then Matthews came in to score the final run of the game on a wild pitch.

Up Next
Trinity and Cortland will square off for game two of the series tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. The teams will play again on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to close out the weekend's action.