MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – After winning their fourth straight SCAC Championship, the Trinity Baseball team maintained their No. 3 ranking in the latest D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25.
The D3baseball.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Full members of NCAA Division III are eligible.
Trinity defeated Southwestern University with an 8-3 final on Sunday to become the only team in SCAC history to win four consecutive baseball titles. Senior pitcher Ryan Gray took a perfect game into the fifth before issuing a walk to the Pirates' Colby Schmidt. He still had a no-hitter until the seventh, but, after two walks gave Southwestern runners at first and second, Ben Little emptied the bases with a three-run bomb to right center to cut the Tigers' lead to 4-3 and chase Gray from the game.
Trinity responded, however, with a Drew Butler RBI single and, the big blow of the inning, a bases-clearing, two-out double by George Haaland that scored three more and gave the Tigers a comfortable 8-3 lead.
As the league's automatic qualifier, Trinity (35-7) heads to a Regional Tournament, to be held May 18-22, at a predetermined site.
