Tigers Get Off to a Great Start

The Trinity Baseball team couldn't have asked for a better start to their season. The Tigers are already 7-1 and cruising towards the beginning of conference play. Perhaps the biggest contribution to the team's early success is the way they have performed at the plate. Hitters from the top and bottom of the lineup seem to be getting clutch hits every night. "I think it really shows how much depth we have this year," said starting catcher Kyle Felix. "We're approaching this year with the mentality that any 9 guys on our team can go out their and compete with the best in the country." Rankings from D3baseball.com have not been updated recently, but when they do, the Tigers can expect a spot among the Top 25 teams in the country. Another part of the Tigers game that has been stellar so far is their starting pitching. Noah Solomon, last year's SCAC pitcher of the year as a sophomore, already has a 2-0 record with a total of 5 earned runs allowed. Another pitcher performing well for the Tigers right now is junior Mike Panozzo, who is also off to a 2-0 start. "Pitching is a lot easier when your team is constantly putting runs to support you on the board early", said Mike. While Trinity baseball has seen so many positives this early in the season, there are also some things that they know they have to get better at before the start of conference play. While the starting pitching has been phenomenal so far, the relief pitching has been below par. In a couple of the games so far this year, the Tiger relief pitchers have blown big early leads. Also, while the defense has been good, the Tiger infielders know that it has to be better against conference favorites like Millsaps College. Even with these little flaws, the Tigers and their fans couldn't be happier with the way they've started off the 2010 season.

De ja vue?

As the much anticipated 2010 Trinity Baseball season approaches, it's easy to tie the team's situation and expectations with those of the 2008 Trinity Tigers. In 2008, the offseason was full of hard work, long practices, and heavy competition for spots in the starting lineup caused mainly by a talented group of freshman. The 2008 team's motivation fed off their dissatisfaction of the results the previous year in which they finished with a "below .500" record. During the 2008 season, they were lead by strong, experienced pitching and instant success from their younger players. Every game, it seemed like 3 to 4 freshman were not just in the starting lineup, but were in the top half of the batting order. They finished the season 35-16 and were just one game away from advancing to the DIII College World Series. This year, everything seems a little too familiar. The Tigers just came off a disappointing season a year ago where they finished 24-22 and missed the playoffs. Also, they brought in a freshman class with a lot of players that have the potential to have an immediate impact. It's hard to speculate what Trinity's starting line up will be before a single game has even be played, however, it looks as if the Tigers starting middle infielders will both be freshman (John Hall and Kevin Clements). It also appears that they will also rely on freshman Tyler Rockefella out of the bullpen. Who knows what kind of season the Trinity Tigers will have, the only thing I'm sure of is that it seems a little like de ja vue to me.