SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Junior Brandon Nelson (Missouri City, Texas) hit a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the first and No. 22 Trinity University scored all its runs over the first two innings on the way to defeating visiting Babson College, 8-2, to open a three-game series on Friday night at the Trinity Baseball Field. 

Babson opens the season at 0-1 while Trinity starts 1-0. 

Senior Brant Savage (Charlton, Mass.) had an RBI double, junior Walter Sadowsky (Morristown, N.J.) singled and drove in a run and graduate student Luke Tanner (Los Angeles, Calif.) singled and scored to lead the Beavers. Senior Tanner Santos (Bethany, Conn.), classmate Mike Swierczynski (Wallingford, Conn.) and sophomores Chris Basile (Miami Beach, Fla.) and Ryan Hvozdovic (Hillsborough, N.J.) all singled and walked in the loss. 

First-year Jason Finklestein (Boston, Mass.), who came on in relief of senior Tristen Spalter (Sergeantsville, N.J.) in the first inning, struck out five over 7.1 innings in his collegiate debut. After giving up four runs, three of them earned, in the second inning, he retired 19 straight batters before allowing a single to senior Brett Jones (Boulder, Colo.) with one out in the bottom of the eighth.

Junior Nicholas Lazzara (Carrollton, Texas) went 1-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored, while senior Ty Preston (Pearland, Texas) doubled and drove in a run for the Tigers. Fellow senior Joseph Chavana (Laredo, Texas) gave up two runs on five hits over 6.0 innings to pickup the win, while junior Will Hellings (Summit, N.J.) fanned two over three shutout innings to pick up the save. 

Chavana got an inning-ending double play to escape trouble in the top of the first and Trinity took advantage of Nelson's three-run dinger and a double to left center by Preston with two outs to jump on top 4-0. Senior Kai Tinker (Simi Valley, Calif.) made it 5-0 with an RBI single to right center, Lazzara plated two more runs with a base hit to left and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Holloway two batters later extending the Tigers' lead to 8-0. 

The Beavers were unable to take advantage of senior Jack Julian's (Manchester, Mass.) leadoff double in the third before finally getting to Chavana in the sixth. Savage drove in Tanner with a double to the gap in left center and later moved to third before racing home on Sadowsky's sacrifice fly to left to make it 8-2. Babson, which left eight men on base, had a chance to cut into the deficit further in the seventh with runners on first and second before hitting into its third double play of the game. 

The teams play game two of the weekend series on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. EST. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 7-9 all-time against Trinity.
•    Sadowsky has a hit in each of his last four outings going back to last season, while Savage and Santos have both reached base in five consecutive games dating back to last year. 
•    Babson is 6-13 against nationally-ranked opponents going back to 2022.