#6 Tiger Baseball will continue their season in Marshall, Texas where they will compete in the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament.
The Tigers (36-7, 27-3 SCAC) ended on top of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference world yet again, sweeping through the SCAC tournament with clutch performances from every Tiger contributing to bringing home the hardware. Seven players made the All-Tournament team, including
Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas / Jesuit College Prep),
Will Baker (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point),
Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif. / Grace Brethren),
Kaleb Woodward (San Pedro, Calif. / Palos Verdes Peninsula),
Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point),
Will Taylor (Greenwood Village, Colo. / Cherry Creek), and
Will Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit).
It was the weekend of the Wills, with
Will Baker providing two clutch walk-off hits to propel the Tigers into the championship game along with 6 RBI throughout the tournament.
Will Taylor collected two wins on his impressive record by pitching 5.1 one run innings.
Will Hellings also pitched 5 one run innings and recorded a save in the championship game to help the Tigers raise the trophy.
Preview - Marshall Regional
The Tigers bus over East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas to begin their journey in the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament. Trinity is the one-seed in the regional and will take on four-seeded Huntingdon College. They are joined by Millsaps College, who is the two-seed, and East Texas Baptist, who is the three-seed. Game one against Huntingdon will be on Friday, May 16th at 11:00 AM.
On The Millsaps College Majors: Millsaps is enjoying its most successful season in the past decade and is making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2015 with a 29-13 (13-5 SAA) record. They've been a solid group all season, but have struggled against tournament teams who they are 6-8 against. They were crowned regular season champions of the Southern Athletic Association, and won their opening game against Berry in the SAA tournament, but fell to Rhodes in the second round before the tournament was canceled due to weather. The Majors have been in a bit of a flux as of late and are 5-5 in their last ten games. Senior pitcher Nick Tarantino proved himself to be the class of the SAA, winning the conference's Pitcher of the Year award thanks to his solid 2.94 ERA and 85 strikeouts over 82.2 innings pitched. The Majors landed three batters on the All-SAA first team, headlined by senior right fielder Bradley Pelle. He's started in every game this season and has amassed a .393 batting average with 58 RBI and 14 home runs. The Majors are led by their long time skipper Jim Page, who has been at the helm since 1989 and has posted an impressive 880-617-3 record. Trinity is 53-50 against the Majors historically, and hasn't played Millsaps since they beat them 11-5 back in the 2017 season.
On The East Texas Baptist University Tigers: ETBU are once again the top cats in the American Southwest Conference and have been called upon to host this regional with a 28-14 (11-5 ASC) record. Their tough schedule at the beginning of the year made it so they didn't have a winning record until March, but breezed through their conference season with only Mary Hardin-Baylor giving them any real pushback. They have had their struggles against teams in the tournament as well, holding a 5-5 record over such teams. Senior pitcher Jagger Neely won ASC tournament MVP with his performance on the mound in the championship game, pitching a complete game shutout over LeTourneau to seal the ASC championship for ETBU. Throughout the season, Neely has posted a 2.63 ERA and holds a 3-1 record. Graduate student right fielder Luke Bumpus won the ASC's Newcomer of the Year award for batting .415 with 35 RBI and six home runs. ETBU is headed by Jared Hood, who is in his 11th year as the head coach of the Marshall Tigers who he has built a 307-153 record with. Under his leadership, ETBU has made three straight NCAA tournament appearances and a College World Series appearance. Trinity is 3-3 against ETBU all-time, and last played them in a 9-3 victory last season.
On The Huntingdon College Hawks: Huntingdon enters this tournament as a Cinderella story, making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2016 with a 22-19 (7-11 CCS) record. The Hawks have struggled against teams in the tournament, only having a 5-10 record against those teams. They snatched the Collegiate Conference of the South's automatic qualifier after making an improbable run through the CCS tournament. After dropping the opening game to Belhaven, they walked off Covenant the next day before beating LaGrange and getting revenge on Belhaven by beating them twice to win the championship. Junior two-way player Brent Cadenhead won CCS tournament MVP for hitting 6-17 with an RBI and pitching 3.2 innings with a Win and three saves. Junior right fielder Brodie Holcomb has been the most effective bat for the Hawks this season, slashing .329 with six doubles, eight triples, and 26 RBI. Sophomore pitcher JB Landrum has been the winningest pitcher for the Hawks and has put up a 4.24 ERA with 68 strikeouts over 70 innings pitched.
What does the future hold?
If the Tigers win the Marshall Regional, they will play the winner of the La Verne Regional the following weekend in the Super Regional round. They could potentially play one of either La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer, McMurry, or Whitworth in a best of three series.
