Baseball
 

May 17, 2006

Trinity Defeats Texas Lutheran to Open NCAA Regionals

Orange, California - Trinity's baseball team defeated Texas Lutheran University 11-4 at the NCAA West Regional Championships on Wednesday afternoon.

Trinity (34-11) opened up an early lead and never looked back against Texas Lutheran, which had beaten Trinity twice during the regular season.

The Bulldogs actually took the first lead of the game when Jacob Kaase hit a solo homer in the top of the first innings, but that turned out to be the only earned run of the game off of Tiger starter Drew Bignall. 

Bignall improved to 7-2 with the win, handling the potent Texas Lutheran offense for eight solid innings.  He allowed just two runs - one earned - on four hits, striking out four batters in the game.  Bignall retired 13 out of 14 batters from the end of the third to the beginning of the eighth inning, and didn't allow a runner past second base after the second inning.

After the one-run first, Trinity's offense answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.  After the Bulldogs tied it 2-2 in the second (on an unearned run), Trinity responded yet again with a multi-run inning, hitting Texas Lutheran starter Daniel Besa for three more runs.  Besa fell to 7-2 on the year, giving up seven runs - four earned - through three innings, allowing four hits. 

Trinity added two more runs in the third to take a commanding 7-2 lead after three innings, adding runs in the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings.  Texas Lutheran had two runs in the ninth, but the rally was stopped by reliever Evan Bronson.  Bronson hit one batter, but retired the other two he faced to end the game.

Nick Vera had a tremendous day for the Tigers, finishing 3-5 with three runs and two RBI in the game.  Vera cracked back-to-back doubles, and reached base all five times he came up to bat.  He also stole three bases to give him 34 steals in 37 attempts this season.

Johnny Baugus scored three runs as well for Trinity, while Blake Holman was 2-4 with two RBI.  Holman extended his hitting streak to 10 games.  Ryan Cavan was 1-2 with two runs and two RBI, while Bobby Zabor drove in two runs.

Brett Cannon and Dustin Spardella had two hits each, accounting for four of the seven hits by Texas Lutheran's offense.  The Bulldogs committed five errors in the game, leading to four unearned runs.