SAN ANTONIO – A ninth inning rally fell one run shy Friday as Southwestern dropped their opening round game 4-3 against host Trinity at the 2014 SCAC Baseball Championships.

The Pirates had battled back from a three-run deficit however, Clayton Sparks was thrown out trying to stretch a single in the ninth inning. Sparks was able to drive in Zach Lynch from second after Lynch reached on a fielder's choice with two outs in the final inning.

 Trinity jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and added a third run in the bottom of the third before the Pirates were able to get on the scoreboard.

Charlie St. Clair singled home Jake Pawelek cutting the Tiger lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth. St. Clair went 2-for-4 and the lone RBI in the loss.

Southwestern cut the lead to one in the eighth when Sparks led off the inning with a double and scored on a wild pitch; however Trinity was able to get the run back in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly.

Jason Stading was tagged with the 'tough-luck' loss as he rallied back after allowing the first three Tiger runs to hold Trinity to just three hits. Stading also struck out two and walked two through five innings.

Southwestern moves onto an elimination game against Centenary Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The Gents took 2-of-3 from the Pirates during the regular season although Southwestern won the finale which started a streak that saw the Pirates win six of their next eight games.