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Trinity Baseball Draws Oglethorpe in First Round of SCAC Tournament
San Antonio – The Trinity Tiger baseball team will play the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels on Thursday at noon, in the opening round of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Tournament, at Millington, Tenn.
USA Stadium is the site for the six-team, double-elimination tournament. The winner of the four-day tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Trinity (28-7, 13-4 SCAC), led by 12th-year head coach Tim Scannell, enters as the top seed in the West Division. Oglethorpe (19-20, 7-8 SCAC) is No. 3 in the East. Rhodes (24-14, 8-7 SCAC), No. 2 in the East, plays Millsaps (24-12, 12-5 SCAC), No. 2 in the West, at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. DePauw (21-15, 9-6 SCAC), No. 1 in the East, meets Austin College (19-18, 9-11), No. 3 in the West, at 7 p.m.
The tournament continues through Sunday, with the championship game scheduled for noon. A second game, if necessary, would be played at 3:30 p.m.
The Tigers, ranked 19th by d3baseball.com, are paced by senior first baseman Evan Jones of Hillsborough, Calif. (Junipero Serra). Jones leads the Tigers in eight statistical categories: batting (.480, 60-125), slugging percentage (.888), on-base percentage (.583), hits (60), RBI (61), home runs (12), total bases (111), and walks (33). He is second in runs scored, with 46, and has also produced 11 doubles and two triples. Sophomore infielder Kevin Jackson of Bellevue, Wash. (O’Dea), is the Tigers’ leader in runs scored, with 50. Jackson is batting .431 (53-123), and has 27 RBI, four home runs eight doubles, and three triples. Nick Pappas, a sophomore infielder from Los Angeles (Loyola), has a .421 batting average (59-140), and has cracked 50 RBI, six home runs, 10 doubles, and four triples.
Three pitchers will lead the way for the Tigers this weekend. Ben Klimesh, a sophomore right-handed pitcher from Wilmette, Ill. (New Trier), is sporting an undefeated 6-0 record. Klimesh, who has hurled 59.1 innings, has an ERA of 4.55 (30 earned runs). He has allowed 54 hits, 32 walks, and has fanned 60 batters. Michael Panozzo, a junior right-hander from Houston (Clear Lake), stands at 6-2. Panozzo has an ERA of 3.46 (20 earned runs) over 52 innings. He has allowed 47 hits, 10 walks, and has 33 strikeouts. Noah Solomon, a junior right-hander from Austin, Texas (Anderson), has a record of 4-2, and an ERA of 5.62 (25 earned runs). Solomon has pitched 40 innings, and has allowed 49 hits, 16 walks, while recording 43 strikeouts.
Last year, the Tigers advanced to their 14th SCAC final in 18 seasons, beating Rhodes and Centre (twice), before losing to Hendrix in the championship game at Jackson, Miss. Trinity has won four SCAC Championships under coach Scannell’s leadership (1999, 2004, 2006 and 2008), and also took the title in 1995.
