PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. - Setting a new season high in back-to-back games, Trinity International tallied 13 hits in both games of a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon, defeating the Trinity Christian Trolls twice, 8-4 in game one, followed by a 10-2 victory in game two.
Box Scores: Game 1 | Game 2 | Season Stats
The Trojans (10-14, 2-6 CCAC) jumped ahead early, scoring five runs on five hits in the top of the 1st inning. Senior
Justin VanderNaald capped the rally with his first home run of the season, a three-run shot that brought home
Ethan Jarvis and
Joel Stephenson, each of whom singled earlier in the frame. Trinity Christian (15-16, 3-6 CCAC) responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, but starting pitcher
Adam Gomski would settle in, retiring 11 of the next 12 hitters en route to a six-inning outing with just three earned runs allowed.
Freshman
Nick Gehrt finished 3-for-5 in the first game, while Gomski, Jarvis, and VanderNaald all collected two hits apiece.
Mitchell Apple come on in relief in the bottom of the 7th, striking out two without allowing a run.
In the second game of the day, the Trolls nearly took their first lead in the 2nd inning, but Jarvis was able to work around a bases-loaded jam without surrendering a run. In their next at-bat in the top of the 3rd, TIU would take advantage of two Troll errors, scoring twice on a Gomski single and fielding error, then pushing across a third run on
Michael Balistreri's two-out single. Trinity Christian would get one back in the 4th inning, but the Trojans extended their lead with an RBI double from VanderNaald, and an RBI groundout from
Michael Luker, making it a 5-1 advantage. The Trojans then put the game out of reach with another five-run inning in the 8th, that saw the first six Trojans to the plate reach base safely.
Jarvis would throw eight innings to earn his second win of the season, working around five base hits and five walks to allow just two earned runs. Balistreri posted the team's second three-hit performance of the day, going 3-for-5 with a game-high two RBI.
The Trojans will now return home, to begin a three-game series with the Roosevelt Lakers on Friday, April 7. First pitch from the TIU Baseball Field is set for 3:00 p.m.
