Blessed Trinity baseball’s winning streak of 49 games – believed to be the second-longest active streak in the country – ended last week in Louisiana, but the nationally ranked Titans look strong entering the stretch run of Region 4-AAA.
Blessed Trinity lost 6-5 to Tuerlings Catholic, the No. 2 team in Louisiana according to MaxPreps, with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning that broke a 5-5 tie in Lafayette, La.
‘’Yeah that was tough, but absolutely incredible experience overall,’’ Blessed Trinity coach Andy Harlin said. “Our kids approached it as well as you can. They never really talked about [the winning streak]. They just showed up and played, and when a game was over, they went on to the next one.’’
While in Louisiana, the team went to watch the LSU-Vanderbilt game. Vanderbilt, the 2014 College World Series champion and 2015 runner-up, was beaten 13-4. Harlin used it as a lesson – Proud programs don’t always win.
‘’Teams are going to lose games,’’ Harlin said. “It wasn't going to go on for eternity, but that was pretty special to be a part of that, and with a great bunch of kids dating back to last year.’’
The defending AAA champion, Blessed Trinity (18-1, 10-0) has plenty left to play for. The Titans are pretty young.
The leading hitter is a freshman, C.J. Abrams, who is batting .542 (26-of-48). Ryan Davis, another freshman, is batting .444 (16-of-36). The Titans are hitting .391 as a team. Other top hitters are Auburn-signee Conor Davis (.471, two HR), Jake Lundkovsky (.407), Garrett Dupuis (.391) and David Dunn (.385).
Five different pitchers have at least 20 strikeouts. Seniors John Michael Bertrand (5-0, 1.43, a Furman signee) and Hayden Lehman (4-0, 0.59, Walters State) have been the leaders of the staff.
Blessed Trinity, ranked No. 8 nationally by MaxPreps, won two out of three games over spring break against Louisiana teams.
In fact, the streak nearly ended four days earlier, when Blessed Trinity trailed Parkview Baptist 6-3 in the top of the seventh. Blessed Trinity scored 13 runs to win 16-6. Conor Davis hit a memorable three-run home run in the inning (see video below, courtesy of Twitter.)
The Titans resume their region schedule Tuesday with a game against Decatur (16-3, 9-2). The region race could come down to the final game April 21 against Westminster (15-4, 9-1).
