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| Matt Tindall leads the Trinity Tigers to the first win by an SCAC team in the D-III World Series. Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
By Austin Walther
for D3baseball.com
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Trinity (Texas) senior pitcher Matt Tindall kept his college career and the Tigers’ season alive in a 9-1 victory in Saturday’s second elimination game at the 2015 Division III World Series in Appleton, Wis.
Tindall earned the win as he allowed one run in 7.2 innings, fanning 10 Salisbury batters.
Trinity started their scoring in the third inning. Nick Jewett led off the inning with a double and scored on the next at-bat by a double from Jordan Fehmel. A sacrifice fly drove in Fehmel and Connor Moore was able to score on a wild pitch. Three batters later, Jose Santos came up with a two-run double to put Trinity ahead 5-0 after three.
Salisbury left fielder Jordan Gowe hit a solo home run to lead off the fourth, but Tindall was able to get out of the inning with no further damage.
Dan Fein exited his last game in a Salisbury uniform after allowing five earned runs in two innings. Another senior pitcher, Kyle Hamby came in in relief.
Fein entered the game with a 6-0 record with a 2.90 ERA. Salisbury head coach Troy Brohawn said he doesn’t regret starting him at all.
“He gives us a solid outing every time out,” Brohawn said. “After a couple 0-2 hits we just couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
Brohawn added that it was important to have every senior get a chance to play in the game. Hamby pitched 3.2 innings, gave up three earned runs and struck out three.
“The senior class was well represented in the game,” Brohawn said. “It meant a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to them.”
The Tigers supplied their senior pitcher with more run support in the seventh. Moore led off the inning with a single and scored from a ground out. The number two hitter Colin Serkowski reached on an error by the pitcher and scored on a double. Santos was then able to drive in his third and fourth run of the game with a bases clearing double to extend Trinity’s lead 9-1.
Santos said he has the same approach for every at the plate and he didn’t change it against Salisbury.
“I see the ball and try and drive it somewhere,” Santos said. “My goal is to get on base every time and score runs.”
Troy Nelson came in for relief in the middle of the eighth and gave up one hit to seal the game for Trinity.
Trindall said he went out and pitched against Salisbury like it was any other game. He tries to make pitches and has faith in his defense behind him.
“I didn’t want to make the situation too big,” Trindall said. “I just threw my game and we needed a win to move on.”
Brohawn said he enjoyed the ride with this group of seniors this season. He has total respect for his starting pitcher Fein.
“I’m very proud of this young man and he is a class act,” Brohawn said.
As for Fein, he was able to make back-to-back World Series appearances. He is very proud of all of his teammates.
“We battled back to get to this point,” Fein said. “None of us are happy about how the season ended, but all of us are proud of what we have accomplished.”
Gowe agreed with his starting pitcher about how the season went.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Gowe said. “I love my teammates and we played our hearts out to get here.”
Trinity coach Tim Scannell said he believes that the team is able to hit from anywhere in the lineup. The biggest thing for us is that they are moving to play another game.
“The team did a great job in waking up and moving on from the loss,” Scannell said. “We all agreed that the past is the past and that we were going to attack today.”
Salisbury ended its season with a 33-5-1 record and Trinity will play the winner of Emory and UW-La Crosse at 1:15 p.m. on Sunday in an elimination game.