Trinity Collegiate slides by Florence Christian
By Don Gearhart
Trinity Collegiate Titans opened their 2023 season with a win against Florence Christian. The Eagles got on the board quickly in the top of the first inning. Bradley Shelley singled off the glove of a diving Titans second baseman. A pick-off attempt sailed wide and down the right field line allowing Shelley to advance all the way to third. A sacrifice fly brought Shelley in to score. The Titans answered right back as both Nickalos Romanoli and Mac Faile drew walks. An out later, Tucker Galloway drilled a sharp single to left to plate Romanoli.
After a rough first inning on the mound, Faile settled down in the second inning striking out all three batters he faced. Trinity got a base hit from Gates Chapman but an outstanding defensive play eliminated any scoring.
Shelley was at it again, singling to start the third. He advanced to third when a base hit to right resulted in a throwing error and scored when Gabe McLaughlin hit a sacrifice fly to left. Trinity answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third. A Hit-by-pitch, error, and walk loaded the bases. Kam Rheuark got an RBI the hard way when he was hit by a pitch. Chapman drove home the second run on a dribbler down the third base line that nobody could field.
Neither team scored in the fourth inning.
After one out in the fifth, Shelley continued his superb day by hitting a long homerun to right field. When Faile struggled to retire the next batter, Tanner Hall was called in to take over the pitching chores and responded with two strikeouts to end the inning. Trinity would score the deciding run in their half of the fifth. Galloway walked and advanced to second when Pierce Evan’s ground out would only allow for the out at first. With two outs, Chapman became the hero when he singled sharply to score Galloway.
Neither team scored in the sixth although Trinity mounted a two-out threat when Romanoli’s hard hit grounder to third was misplayed and Hall doubled down the left field line. Galloway’s high fly to right was caught to end the threat.
The Eagles got a lead-off walk to start the final inning. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second. A flyout to right was not deep enough to move the runner to third. A hit-by-pitch put two runners aboard but Hall was able to get the final out on a high fly to left.
Hall got the win. He did not surrender a hit, struck out three, walked two, and hit one batter. Shelley had three of Florence Christian’s five hits and scored all three of their runs. Chapman’s three hits were half of the Titans total and he drove in two runs.
