SAN ANTONIO – The #9 Trinity University baseball team held on for a 5-1 win over Muhlenberg College (PA) on Wednesday night at the Trinity Baseball Field.
The Tigers (7-5) took an early 2-0 lead against the Mules (1-5) before scoring three runs late in the game to pull away with the win. Despite being out-hit 9-7 and committing three errors defensively, Trinity picked up just its second win in the last six games with three extra-base hits and six stolen bases.
Tait Johnson (Round Rock, Texas / Stony Point) earned the victory after starting the game with 5.0 shutout innings, allowing five hits and recording six strikeouts to earn the win and improve to 1-0 this season.
Brandon Morio (Austin, Texas / McNeil) gave up just one run on four hits and struck out three batters in 1.2 innings, then
Will Taylor (Greenwood Village, Colo. / Cherry Creek) finished the final 2.1 hitless innings with three strikeouts to earn his third save of the season.
Khalfani Coney (Los Angeles, Calif. / Crossroads School) went 2-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored as Trinity's leadoff hitter, while
Michael Lustina (Austin, Texas / Westlake) and
Jack Spenst (Corpus Christi, Texas / Ray) also went 2-for-3 in the game.
Callen Singhania (Dallas, Texas / Jesuit) drove in two runs on a 1-for-3 night at the plate.
Coney got the Tigers started early in the game, beginning with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first inning. He then drove in another run in the second with a sacrifice fly to stake Johnson to a 2-0 lead. Johnson pitched around hits in each of the first four innings, which included escaping the fourth unscathed after the Mules loaded the bases with just one out. Morio came on in relief to start the sixth and then ran into trouble in the seventh as Muhlenberg came up with a pair of two-out hits to make it a 2-1 game heading into the seventh inning stretch. Coney reached and moved to third base with just one out, but the Mules got two strikeouts to end the threat.
Taylor, who came in to get the final out of the seventh, retired the Mules in order in the eighth. The Tiger offense finally got going again in the bottom of the eighth, beginning with an RBI double from Spenst to make it 3-1. After the second hit-batter of the inning put two runners on with just one out, the Tigers executed the double steal to put both runners in scoring position. Singhania made the most of the situation with a single to the gap in left-center to take the lead to 5-1. Only a double play kept the inning from being even more prolific for the Tigers, but Muhlenberg was down to its last three outs regardless. Taylor got the first two outs to run his streak to six straight batters retired to start his outing, then after allowing his only runner of the night via a walk, he struck out the final batter to close out the victory.
Trinity will continue its homestand this weekend with a three-game series against Tufts University (MA). The teams open with a game on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., followed by a Sunday game at the same time, and finishing with a Monday night showdown at 7:00 p.m.
