ATLANTA – The 17th-ranked Trinity University baseball team opened its first Southern Athletic Association road series with a 7-4 win over Oglethorpe University (GA) on Friday night at Hermance Stadium.
The Tigers (13-7, 4-0) remain undefeated to start conference play after defeating the Stormy Petrels (11-9, 2-2) in the first of three games between the teams this weekend. Both teams started with two runs in the first inning, then Trinity took the lead for good with three more runs in fourth. The Tigers out-hit the Petrels 12-6, including two doubles and a home run.
Grant Anderson (Austin, Texas / Vista Ridge) led the Tiger offense, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI.
Anthony Suscha (Indianapolis, Ind. / Brebeuf Jesuit) drove in two runs with a pair of infield singles, while
John Ramsey (Austin, Texas / Westwood) scored two runs.
Sawyer Haynes (Waco, Texas / Midway) reached base four times going 1-for-2 with two walks and was hit by a pitch, and
Mattias Rytting (Houston, Texas / Bellaire) knocked a solo home run for his only hit of the evening.
Three Tiger pitchers combined to strike out 10 batters as
Tait Johnson (Round Rock, Texas / Stony Point),
Brandon Morio (Austin, Texas / McNeil), and
Will Hellings (Summit, N.J. / Summit) held Oglethorpe to just four runs on six hits. Hellings led the way with five strikeouts, finishing off the final five innings of the game to earn his first save of the season. Morio (1-1) earned the win with 2.2 innings of relief, giving up just one run on two hits.
The Rundown
Kaleb Woodward (San Pedro, Calif. / Palos Verdes Peninsula) drew a leadoff walk to jump-start the Tiger offense in the top of the first, then Anderson drove him in from third after a pair of ground ball outs. Haynes and
Michael Lustina (Austin, Texas / Westlake) reached to load the bases with two outs, then a throwing error made it a 2-0 game before Oglethorpe got out of the inning with minimal damage done. The Petrels tied the game after also loading the bases with two outs, then lacing a two-run single to the gap in left-center. Johnson got a strikeout to end the inning, though, and the game was tied 2-2 after one.
Both offenses went fairly quiet after that, but Rytting changed that to lead off the fourth inning, crushing a 3-1 pitch over the fence to break the tie.
Nicholas Jones (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) and Ramsey followed the homer with two singles, leading to Suscha driving in a run with a hit to shortstop two batters later.
Will Baker (Missouri City, Texas / Ridge Point) added another run with the fifth hit of the inning for the Tigers, giving his team a 5-2 lead on the eventual game-winning run.
Oglethorpe scratched across a run in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-3, but neither team managed to threaten again until the seventh. Ramsey struck out and should have ended the top of the inning, but instead he reached on a wild pitch. Woodward doubled to put two runners on and then Suscha delivered another RBI single to push the Tiger lead to 6-3. Anderson's leadoff double in the eighth led to another insurance run for Trinity, which was more than enough for Hellings. He stranded the bases loaded in his first inning, then induced an inning-ending double play in the seventh. Hellings also pitched around a walk in the eighth, and although he allowed a solo homer in the ninth that accounted for the final score, he finished off the victory with a strikeout immediately after.
Up Next
Trinity and Oglethorpe will continue the series with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader that begins at 1:00 p.m. (ET). The Tigers can clinch the weekend series with a win in game one, while the Petrels can steal the series with a sweep.
