Tigers claim regional semifinal  title
Trinity Standard , June 2007

TRINITY – Despite rain delays and long-distance travels, the Tigers of Trinity edged out the Bishop Badgers Monday, May 28, to claim the Class 2A regional baseball semifinal championship.
A two-out, bases loaded double by Jordan McKee in the bottom of the seventh inning saved the day for the Tigers and handed them their 7-6 victory.
McKee, who had been struggling at the plate most of the year, went 2 for three Monday against Bishop and achieved what Tiger Coach Kent Craig described as “the biggest hit in the history of Trinity High School.”
Craig noted they had been using the designated hitter for McKee almost all season but he decided to give him a chance at the plate.
“He’d been hitting pretty good lately so I decided to give him a chance to swing and I sure am glad I did,” the coach said. “I guess this makes me look like a genius, but it was Jordan who really came through for us.”
Trinity, the number two ranked Class 2A team in the state, now takes on Rogers, the number one ranked Class 2A team, in the Region IV finals. The winner of that game will advance to the state semifinals.
The three-game Trinity-Rogers series got underway Wednesday, May 30, at 7 p.m. at Blinn College in Brenham and will continue at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 31, also at Blinn. If a third game is needed, it will be played at 7 p.m. Friday, June 1, at Blinn.
 “Rogers is expected to bring a big crowd so we’re hoping that the Trinity folks can also come out and show us their support,” the coach said.
He noted the Blinn field seats 3,000 and the games are expected to be sell-outs.
“We’re not just going to be drawing people from Trinity and Rogers. We have the No. 1 and No. 2 teams meeting so there will be people from San Antonio, College Station and other cities coming to watch us play,” he added.
Craig noted that Monday’s victory over Bishop means the 2007 Trinity Tiger team is the most successful in the history of the school.
This is the first time a Tiger baseball team has made it this far in the playoffs, surpassing the regional quarterfinal championship achieved by the 2006 team.
The 2007 squad also is now deeper into the playoffs than any THS team in history, regardless of sport.
“This is a really good group of kids and I’m very proud of them,” Craig said after Monday’s win.
The victory over Bishop did not come easy with heavy weekend rains forcing the one-game playoff to be moved twice before it could be completed.
The regional semifinal was original scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday in Weimar but heavy rains in that community forced the game to be moved to New Braunfels at almost the last minute.
The game got underway Saturday night but only made it mid-way through the second inning when lighting forced the two teams off the field. Ten minutes later the skies opened up and heavy rain pounded the field, forcing officials to eventually postpone the match.
Officials from both school worked over the weekend to find a field that was dry enough to allow the game to conclude and they elected to use the Shiner Starplex as the game site.
“We got more than two-inches of rain in Shiner, but fortunately, the field had Astroturf and we were able to complete the game,” he said.
Had the game been postponed, the teams could have played on Tuesday, but if a winner was not decided that night, a coin flip would have been used to decide who would advance.
When play began Monday in the bottom of the second inning, the score stood at 0-0.
The Tigers quickly took the upper hand with a five-run second inning.
Bishop cut the deficit with one run in the third and tied the game with four runs in the fifth. In the sixth inning, the Badgers were on top 6-5, a score that held until the bottom of the seventh.
Gallant led off the last inning with a single and moved to second on a passed ball. Pinch hitter Jonathan Austin then popped up to the catcher on a sacrifice bunt attempt for the first out.
Jered McKee made it to first on a walk and another passed ball allowed both Tiger runners to advance to scoring positions.
The Badgers subsequently intentionally walked Jamie Drake to load the bases, bringing up Jordan McKee.
Facing an 0-2 count, McKee smashed a line drive just out of the reach of Bishop center fielder Dustin Horner allowing Gallant and Jared McKee to score, ending the game.
“That kid hadn’t hit that pitch today,” Bishop Coach Nathan Borden told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. “We though there was a hole in his swing, but we didn’t get it high enough. It was a good pitch, he (McKee) just roped it.”