SAN ANTONIO – The Trinity University softball team finished off a Southern Athletic Association weekend series sweep with a 5-3 win over Millsaps College (MS) on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers (26-8-1, 12-3 SAA) swept Saturday's doubleheader against the Majors (21-14, 7-8 SAA) to clinch the series, winning 4-1 and 5-0. Millsaps scored in the top of the first to take the lead, but Trinity answered with three runs in the first and two more in the second to take control of the game. Millsaps put the tying run on base in the seventh, but a double play squashed the comeback bid and Trinity finished off the victory.
Trinity also celebrated Senior Day after the game, honoring seniors
Jordan Arce (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Thousand Oaks),
Angela Baltzell (Antioch, Calif. / Freedom),
Hayden Del Toro (Cypress, Texas / Cy Woods), and
Carsyn Lee (Flower Mound, Texas / Flower Mound), who played in their final regular season home game on Sunday. Arce got the starting nod from the circle, pitching 3.0 innings and recording three strikeouts. Baltzell drew a walk and scored a run in the game. Del Toro and Lee combined to go 5-for-5 at the plate, scoring twice and driving in two runs. Lee led the team by going 3-for-3 with two RBI and Del Toro was 2-for-2 with a walk to also reach base all three times she came up to the plate.
Megan Kriechbaum (Cedar Hills, Utah / Pleasant Grove) threw two shutout innings, allowing just one hit to earn the win and improve to 9-4 this season.
Josephine Koelewyn (Reno, Nev. / Academy of Arts Careers and Technology) picked up her second save of the year, throwing the final two innings and allowing just one hit. Both Tiger pitchers recorded a pair of strikeouts. Koelewyn and
Ella Whitacre (Roanoke, Texas / Byron Nelson) had the only other two hits in the game. Whitacre also scored a run and drove in another.
The Rundown
Millsaps led off the game with an inside-the-park home run to center to take the early lead, but Arce struck out two of the next three hitters and kept it a 1-0 game. The Tigers took advantage of four errors by the Majors in the bottom of the inning, scoring three unearned runs to pull in front 3-1. Boudreaux and Baltzell both reached on errors, then after a stolen base and another error allowed the first run of the inning, Lee tripled to put Trinity in front.
Samantha Tagawa (Agoura Hills, Calif. / Agoura) then drove in Lee with a groundout to finish off the scoring. After a quick second inning for Millsaps, the Tiger offense went back to work in the bottom of the inning. Del Toro singled and stole second to start the frame, then Whitacre drove her in with an infield single. Whitacre stole second herself and then came in two batters later on Lee's second run-scoring hit in as many innings to make it a 5-1 Trinity lead.
Millsaps trimmed the lead in the third with a two-out single that brought in two runs to make it 5-3. Arce escaped without further damage, though, and that turned out to be the final runs of the game. Kriechbaum came in and retired the first five batters she faced, then allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases in the fifth. She made a nice defensive play to end the inning, though, and stranded the bases loaded. Koelewyn came on in the sixth and pitched around a one-out single, then a walk and a fielder's choice put the first two runners on in the seventh. Koelewyn induced a double-play ball to take the air out of the rally, then struck out the final batter to clinch the win.
Up Next
Trinity will hit the road for the final weekend of the regular season, facing off against Centre College (KY) for a three-game series. The teams open with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader, starting at 1:00 p.m. (ET).
