Baseball
 

Trinity Wraps Another Successful Fall Season

San Antonio - Another successful fall season ended with Team 2 winning in a three-game sweep in the intrasquad scrimmage that has become the traditional finish to Trinity's baseball off-season.

Game one of the Trinity World Series was back to clean baseball that made the Tigers a top Division III program for many yearss.  Two teams playing solid defense and getting good pitching support made the first game an enjoyable one to watch for any baseball fan. 

Led by senior catcher Zach Fregosi, Team 2 got the win behind a very solid pitching performance from Kevin Callibick.  Callibick went six innings, giving up two runs - both in the first inning - to secure his first Trinity W.S. victroy.  He located his fastball very well all night long, mixing in a curve and change-up to keep Team 1 off-balance.

The game started out loudly with both teams getting early base runners.  Team 2 managed to push one across in the top frame - taking advantage of a pair of walks and a base hit - however, James Coon - another freshman lefty - settled down to get out of the rough first inning.  Andrew Lawson had a well-struck hit with two strikes to score the run for Team 2.

Team 1 answered right back in the bottom of the first against Callbick.  After a leadoff out, Jeff Claydon and Stosh Hoover found themselves on first and second following walks.  A double steal put them in scoring position, and Evan Jones ripped a ball back up the box to give Team 1 a 2-1 lead.  Unfortunately for Team 1, its scoring was done four hitters into the game.  After Callbick went six, Matt Gideon pitched two solid innings and Britton Horn picked up the save for Team 2, coming in to close out the ninth after a leadoff single.  Alex Atherton had a good night at the plate, ripping a single and having a line drive come back robbed by James Coon in the third.  Fortunately for James the ball hit his glove and not his chin.

Game 2 Friday night happened to set the record for the fastest game in the history of the Tiger World Series (1:49, breaking the record set in 2001 of 2:05).  In a beautiful pitcher's dual, Team 2 managed to get just one hit, a two-run homerun by Andrew Lawson in the first, and pull off the series clinching win.

Mike Panozzo was the man of the hour for the Tigesr on Friday night.  Pitching to Fregosi, Mike went seven full innings, allowing three hits without a walk for the entire evening.  Panozzo located his fastball about as well as a pitcher could, hitting both sides of the plate at the knees.  Panozzo then kept Team 1 off-balance with a good breaking ball, a changeup, and a split finger pitch.  Ryan Tamez was nearly as brilliant, allowing only the one hit to Lawson in the first.  After walking a couple in the sixth, Tamez finally gave way to the bullpen, which also did a nice job for Team 1 in the final 2.1 innings.

Team 1 mounted a comeback in the top of the eighth, scoring a run and loading up the bases with no out in the frame.  However Kyle Carnaroli cleaned up the mess by striking out the next three hitters with a big bender from the left side.

Game 3 Sunday afternoon was the conclusion of the Fall World Series.  Team 2 swept the whole thing, winning the final game 7-0.  In what was yet another strong pitching day, the two teams grabbed two hits in the first four innings off junior Clint Robertson (Team 1) and senior Brian Oates (Team 2).  With the score knotted a 0-0 in the top of the fifth, the control issues of Mr. Robertson finally caught up with him and a lead off walk came around to score on a sac fly.  The game got kind of messy from that point forward, with Team 2 taking all the emotion and energy out of Team 1.  The last several innings were not the cleanest of baseball by Team 1, and thus the score the way it was. 

Overall, everyone was happy with the results of the Fall World Series.  A special thanks goes out to Blake Holman, Matt Berning, Bobby Zabor, and Nick Vera for their help as Team 2 coach and umpires for the series respectively.  The 3-0 series win makes Blake Holman the winningest coach in Tiger history (min. 3 games coached).