MARSHALL, Texas – In a battle of the top two teams in Texas for NCAA Division III, #5 East Texas Baptist University rallied in the seventh inning for a 7-5 win over #12 Trinity University. ETBU is now 12-4 and now played four nationally ranked teams.
 
Brett Wagner and Hunter Rumachik led the team with two hits. Connor Massimini and Wagner had two RBI while Landon Durdin and Justin Blancaflor added one RBI. Wagner and Massimini both had a home run.
 
ETBU used five pitchers in the win as Preston Crow received the win and Robert Croft gained his third save of the year. Crow was the third pitcher used going one inning to move to 2-0 on the year with two strikeouts. Landry Powell started the game going three innings with three strikeouts followed by Hayden Robiichaux for three innings and five strikeouts. Tate Sloan followed Crow for 1.1 innigns with one strikeout and Croft finished the final two batters of the game for the save.
 
Neither team scored in the first inning but Trinity took a 1-0 lead in the top of second. Durdin tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a sacrifice fly as Nicolas Chavez came in. Wagner singled in a run in third inning for a 2-1 lead but Trinity tied it up at the top of the third at two. Blancaflor earned a RBI in the fourth on a groundout and then Dylan Burnaman scored on a throwing error to make it 4-2.  Wagner's solo home run in the fifth inning put ETBU up 5-2 but Trinity added two in the sixth and one in the seventh to tie the game at five. With one out in the seventh inning, Massimini hit his first home run of the year over left field to give ETBU the 7-5 lead.
 
Sloan and Croft worked together in the final two innings to hold off a Trinity rally as ETBU took the top 25 win.
 
ETBU will host Howard Payne University this weekend in a three-game ASC series starting on Friday at 7:00 p.m.