College Sports

The Trinity College baseball team won the NCAA Division III title today in dramatic fashion.

And that, friends, is putting it mildly.

The day opened with TC taking on Johns Hopkins. Hopkins, playing with one loss in the double-elimination tournament, needed to post two wins over Trinity to win the title, while Trinity needed only to win the first game.

The Bantams, sporting a perfect record of 44-0, hoped to close out a perfect year, but Hopkins had other ideas. The Blue Jays posted a 4-3 win, forcing a second game for all the marbles, and spoiling the Bantams perfect season in the process.

But Trinity College kept it’s eye on the prize. The Bantams were down, 4-3, in game two, heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. But sophomore Matt Sullivan and senior Guy Gogliettino, Jr., drew back-to-back bases loaded full count walks to give Trinity College its first ever baseball National Championship, 5-4.

That’s right, back-to-back, bases loaded, full count walks!

To top that, it was Gogliettino’s first at-bat of the Championship Tournament. He had entered the game as a defensive replacement, and left the game carried off on the shoulders of his teammates. He actually fouled off seven pitches before drawing the full count walk to win the game.

That’s called earning it the hard way.

So Trinity finished it’s storied season with a mark of 45-1 and an NCAA D-III title.

And get this little factoid: The Bantams baseball team joined the 1990 Trinity College women’s softball team as the only NCAA baseball or softball teams in any division to go undefeated in an entire regular season.

Wonder what’s in the water up in Hartford, Conn.?

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