#6 Tiger Baseball writes another chapter in their season's story as they return to San Antonio to host Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference foe McMurry University in the NCAA tournament Super Regional round in a best of three series.
 
The Tigers (39-8, 27-3 SCAC) went out and won the Marshall Regional, hosted by East Texas Baptist, last weekend to get to the Super Regional round. After hammering Huntingdon 20-2 in the opening game, the Tigers rode that offensive momentum into their next game against the host school, ETBU, and won the slugfest against them 12-10. Trinity was pushed to the brink on championship Sunday when ETBU blanked Trinity 4-0 to force the if necessary game seven. After falling behind in game seven, Trinity dug deep and rallied in the eighth and tenth innings to come out of Marshall victorious.
 
The Tigers' batting order mashed at ETBU's Woods Field, hitting .333 (49-147) with nine doubles, a triple, 11 home runs, and 38 RBI in the regional round. Maddox McDonald (San Antonio, Texas / Antonian) accounted for nearly a third of the Tigers' scoring, slashing .315 (6-19) with three home runs and 11 RBI. Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) also enjoyed a successful weekend at the plate, batting .533 (8-15) with two home runs and six RBI. John Ramsey (Austin, Texas / Westwood) had a breakout weekend, going .600 (6-10) at the plate with a double, a home run, and three RBI. Wes Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit) was stellar out of the bullpen, pitching 3.2 scoreless innings with four strikeouts and a save.
 
Preview - SCAC Super Regional
 
The Tigers make a grand return to San Antonio to host the Super Regional round, a best of three game series against McMurry with game one on Friday, May 23rd at noon, game two on Saturday, March 8th at 11 AM, and the if necessary game three at 3 PM following game two.
 
On The McMurry University War Hawks:
 
McMurry is having their best season in program history, breaking their season high wins record and making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008 with a 35-11 (22-8 SCAC) record heading into the San Antonio Super Regional. After being eliminated from the SCAC tournament by Concordia, McMurry waited with bated breath to see if they were going to get into the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid and breathed a sigh of relief when they did get in. The NCAA committee sent the War Hawks 1,229 miles away from home to compete in the La Verne Regional in California.
 
Pomona-Pitzer Colleges were the War Hawks' opponent in their first game, and they got off to a shaky start, giving up an unearned run in the bottom of the first. They didn't let that rattle them, however and proceeded to score seven unanswered runs to take a 7-1 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. Pomona would rally back to tie the game going into the ninth, but junior catcher, and SCAC Offensive Player of the Year, Michael Smosna led off the inning with a triple, and freshman right fielder Beckham Paul drove him in to take the lead for the War Hawks and ultimately win the game 8-7. 
 
Their second game was against the host school, the University of La Verne, and they got off to another rocky start when La Verne scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. McMurry struck back in the top of the second by scoring a run of their own, but then they were locked in a pitchers duel for the next four innings before they took the lead in the seventh and added an insurance run in the eighth for a 4-2 lead. La Verne scratched across two runs to tie things up heading into the ninth. The déjà vu didn't end there, as senior shortstop Blake Beach led off the ninth inning with a triple to set up senior left fielder Xavier Escobar's sacrifice fly to score Beach and win the game 5-4.
 
On championship Sunday McMurry found themselves facing Pomona-Pitzer Colleges once again. This game was not close. McMurry scored nine unanswered runs in the first three innings, and an exhausted Pomona team simply could not keep up with the War Hawks' blazing offensive attack. Sophomore pitcher David Perez took the mound in the top of the fourth and silenced the Pomona attack for 5.2 innings where he only gave up three hits. The scoreboard read a 12-3 War Hawks victory when the final out was recorded and the dogpile commenced.
 
The War Hawks batting order has four main threats: SCAC Offensive Player of the Year Michael Smosna, SCAC Freshman of the Year first baseman Collin Bruning, Xavier Escobar, and junior third baseman Riley Hood. That Quartet was very successful in the regional round, batting .431 (19-44) with three doubles, three triples, and seven RBI. Smosna is 8th in all of Division III in Hits with 76, and Hood is 13th in that same category with 75.
 
Although they were struggling when they played the Tigers earlier in the season, the McMurry pitching staff has improved into a solid rotation. Starting pitchers Hunter Poe and Ethan Wendel can be streaky at times, but can shut down some of the nation's best batting orders. Relief pitchers Jonathan Enriquez, David Perez, and Bryson Morrill are just some of the names that should be expected to make appearances on the mound this weekend. When they played Trinity back in March, the War Hawks team ERA was 5.45. They have improved that to a team ERA of 4.89 since then.
 
In the regular season SCAC series, the Tiger pitching staff shut down the War Hawks in games one and two. Trinity had to make a ninth inning comeback in game three, overcoming a three run deficit which was capped off with a Kaleb Woodward (San Pedro, Calif. / Palos Verdes Peninsula) walkoff to seal the series sweep. Trinity has an 11-13 record in the all time series against the War Hawks.
 
What's At Stake?
 
The winner of the San Antonio Super Regional will play in the Division III College World Series in East Lake, Ohio the following weekend on May 30th.