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| Trinity's D-III baseball national championship is the first for any team in the state of Texas. By Steve Frommell, d3photography.com |
By Jim Dixon
D3baseball.com
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- Trinity's Drew Butler continued his hot hitting to lay claim to Most Outstanding Player and led Trinity (Texas) to a 10-7 win over Keystone in Game 2 and the national championship on Tuesday afternoon at Neurosciences group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.
"I felt like I was squaring up the ball earlier in the week but just a tick off," said Butler. "Today it was just me seeing the ball and it all coming together."
Trinity opened the first with a 3-0 lead. Connor Moore, Colin Serkowski, Butler, and Nicholas Jewett all had singles to account for the first two runs. Jose Santos' sacrifice fly gave the Tigers the three run lead.
Keystone got one back in their first at-bats. Austin Chaszar doubled to left and scored on Brandon Eady's safety to center.
Trinity loaded the bases in the second with no outs but Keystone escaped with the efforts of leftfielder Chris Triano. Triano caught a fly ball for the first out and threw a strike to home for the seceond out. Jeremy Wolf came up and fouled out to Triano as the Giants escaped, still down by two runs.
Keystone chased Ian Hussian in the second and Chris Tate took over for Trinity. Two strikeouts left Louis Reyes stranded on first.
"Tate was phenonminal," said Trinity head coach Tim Scannell. "Hussian has an unbelievable arm but it was just a bad match up."
Butler tripled to open the third and two batters later Santos replaced him on third with the Tiger's second triple in the inning. This ended the day for Keystone's starter, James Dunning and Yeison Andujar came on to pitch for the Giants. Andrew Waters's sacrifice fly made it 5-1 Trinity.
"Yeison did exactly what we wanted to do," said Keystone head coach Jaime Schevchik. "If there was one guy in the bull pen, it was Yeison. For him to go 5-6 innings, he gave us a chance."
Keystone responded with two of their own. Chaszar was hit by a pitch and Triano's deep fly cleared the fence in left center.
"I thought of my mother when I got up," said Triano. "She is always in my ear, stay loose, stay loose. That is when I stay loose. I got two strikes on me and got a ball in the zone and I met it there."
Keystone pulled within a run when Triano was hit by Tate and Nate Ross doubled him home.
Andujar continued to pitch effectively until the seventh. Trinity added three runs before the stretch to increase the lead to four runs. Serkowsli walked and scored on Wolf's triple. Wolf made it 7-4 on Jewett's double, who later scored on Santo's single.
Keystone answered with four consecutive hits to plate two runs as Eady and Ross had RBI hits at the end of the string.
Michael Walker came in the eighth to close out the game.
"I like the fact that we have Mike Walker, the toughest kid we have mentally, to finish out the game," said Scannell.
Keystone drew to within a run in the eighth inning. Reyes singled to left and scampered home on Bill Nelson's double down the left field line.
Trinity pounded out two important insurance runs in the ninth on a Water's single to center.
The Tigers used two outstanding catches in the outfield and a routine catch in left to clinch the 2016 D-III baseball national championship.
"Keystone hit bullets to finish the game," said Scannell. "The two runs by Waters with the big hit up the middle was hugh. Thank goodness for the grit and determination of our team. We were pressed up against the wall, fighting like crazy since that is how good Keystone is."
Trinity will have the rest of the night to celebrate before heading back to San Antonio for the celebrations to start all over for the 2016 D-III baseball national champions.
The All-Tournament team included C - Drew Butler, Trinity, 1B - Austin Clock, Cortland, SS Connor Moore, Trinity, 3B - Carter McEachern, Trinity, OF - Andrew Waters, Trinity, OF - Chris Triano, Keystone, DH - Nate Roethel, St. John Fisher, SP - Seth Lamando, Cortland, SP - Jesse Arnold, Keystone, RP - Chris Tate, RP - Andrew Hoffman, Trinity.