Story courtesy of Trinity Sports Information
APPLETON, WI - The Tiger baseball team shrugged off a rain delay of nearly five hours in its opening game of the NCAA Division III World Series, earning an 8-0 shutout victory over the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Trinity (40-7) tied the school record for wins in a season, reaching 40 victories for the third time in the past four years. The Tigers and Eagles played twice in last year's D-III World Series, splitting a pair of games late in the tournament. UW-La Crosse defeated Trinity 10-7 on its way to an appearance in last year's NCAA Championships Series, finishing second to State University of New York Cortland.
After Trinity scored runs in the first, third, and fourth innings, the skies opened up, and the game was delayed for a total of four hours and 40 minutes. Nick Jewett had back-to-back RBI singles to get the Tigers on the board early in the game. Carter McEachern picked up an RBI on a fielder's choice right before the delay, making it 3-0 Trinity.
The real story was the Tiger pitching, though, which held the nation's leading offensive team to no runs on nine hits. UW-La Crosse came into the weekend with a .372 team batting average and nearly 500 runs scored to lead Division III, but Trinity pitchers Ryan Gray, Kevin Flores, and Gianfranco Filippini held the Eagles to an average under .300 in the shutout.
Gray had a gritty performance on the mound, scattering eight hits over six-plus shutout innings, and striking out six batters. He improved to 9-3 on the season with the win, and he continued to pitch despite the lengthy delay that interrupted his outing.
After allowing a walk and a hit in the seventh, Gray was relieved by Kevin Flores. Following a wild pitch to put runners on second and third, Flores retired three straight batters to preserve the shutout, and turn UW-La Crosse away from their best scoring chance of the night. Flores allowed one hit over two innings of work, striking out three batters. Filipinni retired three straight batters in the ninth to finish off the win.
In the bottom of the sixth, Trinity doubled its lead with three more runs scored, taking advantage of an error by UW-La Crosse, and enjoying back-to-back RBI doubles from McEachern and Austin Singer. The Tigers then added two more in the eighth when McEachern capped his outstanding night with a two-run homer to right field.
McEachern finished with four RBI in the game, going 2-4 with two runs scored. Jewett, Andrew Waters, and Connor Moore had two hits each, and Waters also scored a pair of runs. Jose Santos also crossed the plate twice for the Tigers, who finished the game with 12 hits.
The rain delays bumped the final two games on Friday night, which wound up giving the Tigers a day off on Saturday. Trinity is back in action on Sunday morning against defending NCAA Champion SUNY Cortland, with the first pitch scheduled for 10:00 a.m. (CT).