Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru/LukeZayasMedia
BELTON–A “good loss” doesn’t show up in the win column, but as Mike Stawski reflected on Tuesday night’s 5-4 loss to ninth-ranked Trinity, there was little the UMHB head coach could find fault with in his team’s performance.
With the exception of a couple plays, The Cru’s execution—both at the plate and in the field—was solid. For the fourth time in the month of April, UMHB did not record an error. They scored four runs on just six hits, all with two outs. They stole five bases, breaking the program’s single-season record. The pitching staff carried a one-hitter through 5.2 innings.
The final score just didn’t end up in their favor.
“That’s the first time [this season] where you look at the game, individual plays and as a whole, and I can point to maybe one or two things that I’d like to change,” Stawski told True To The Cru. “Normally, you lose a game and you want to point at 14 things you did wrong.
“They made a play in left field. We didn’t make a play on the infield. And that was the difference. It was just a well-played game by two really good teams, and that’s how it goes.”
That “play in left” was a diving catch by Trinity’s Kaleb Woodward in the eighth inning, and was quite possibly the game’s most crucial point. Colt Harris’ go-ahead homer in the top of the inning was certainly a momentum-shifter in favor of the visitors from San Antonio, as it gave them a 5-4 advantage, but the snag for the third out with UMHB at the plate eliminated what turned out to be The Cru’s last true scoring opportunity of the evening. With Rhett Grosz standing on second base, Kaden deBerardinis lined a pitch towards the gap in left-center field. Initially, it appeared to be a surefire base hit, one that would score Grosz easily from second and tie the score. Instead, Woodward used every last inch of his 6’2 frame to secure the out.
That’s baseball for you.
In the first two innings, it seemed that the Crusader bats couldn’t be stopped. With two outs in the first, Grosz sent his fourth home run of the year over the left field wall. In the second, once again with two outs, Drake Herrera sent a 1-0 pitch up the middle, scoring Tyler Betts from third. A well-executed double steal by Herrera and Chris Perez, with Perez swiping third and Herrera taking second, was compounded by a Trinity error at second base as the throw from catcher Nicholas Lazzara bounced into the outfield. That allowed Perez to score on the play, as Herrera advanced to third.
Cameron Talburt followed with an RBI single to right field, and a 4-0 lead was established. Then the bats went quiet, with just two hits and no runs over the next seven innings.
In that span, Trinity pushed all five of its runs across, coming on seven hits, four of which went for extra bases. Harris swatted a pair of home runs for the Tigers, who are now 28-9 overall. But the Crusaders made Trinity earn it, and kept the pressure on in a game that had resemblance to a conference tournament matchup. Two high-level teams battled, and few mistakes were made on either side.
Ultimately, the margin for error was thin, and the impact of a diving catch in the outfield made that much more significant. The same could be said for the balk called against UMHB reliever Erick Roberts in the seventh, which allowed Trinity to tie the score. Or the back-pick by Crusader catcher Elijah Rodriguez that nabbed Trinity’s Kai Tinker at first base to end the fourth inning. There were lessons to be learned and confidence to be gained as The Cru went step-for-step with a Top 10 opponent, especially with the ASC Tournament looming ahead next weekend in Marshall, Texas.
“I said, you know, that game is going to be the conference tournament game,” Stawski noted. “You don’t typically go into the conference tournament and win a game 11-2. We’re going to win the game 5-3, 6-4, 5-4, kind of thing. It’s really going to come down to one small thing that’s going to happen, either something we do to win a game or something that our opponent doesn’t do for us to win a game.
“When you get to that level of baseball, it’s not, hey, we did eight things wrong in a row and that’s why we lost. So we saw that [tonight]. Like legitimately saw it for the first time, where you can point to two things that happened that changed the game. But that’s it. Everything else was really cleanly-played. We did the little things like PFPs (pitchers fielding practice), we picked off a couple of guys and did those kinds of things. I was really happy about that and that kind of stuff is what you have to do.”
In terms of the preparation for the conference tournament, pitching always ends up being a pivotal aspect for every team involved, from the top seed to the No. 6 seed. The three-game series played over a two-day span during ASC play serves as quality preparation, but to win the whole thing, it often involves playing five or six games in a four-day span. That schedule wears down a pitching staff, putting teams with more depth in the bullpen at an advantage as the tournament progresses.
With that in mind, Stawski used seven different pitchers against Trinity, working to give a number of his young relievers quality innings late in the regular season. Sophomore Gavan Hutton tossed 2.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit as one of two Crusaders to throw 2.0 innings on Tuesday night. The other was Reid Cromie, a junior left-hander who made just his second appearance of the season. Despite giving up a two-run homer to Harris, there was plenty to like about his performance on the mound, including back-to-back putouts at first base in the sixth. Moments like Mason Semmelmann’s successful pickoff at first base in the eighth for the inning’s second out add to the confidence that UMHB indeed has the depth on the mound to make a run at the ASC Tournament title.
“This will be my 17th conference tournament,” Stawski said. “You have to prepare to play six games. Not four. I mean, it’d be nice to only play four and win all four, but you have to be prepared to play six.
“So going in there with seven or eight arms isn’t going to work. So that was what today was. We needed to get a few of these guys that we may have to count on in two weeks, some innings today, and maybe get them a few innings this weekend against Sul Ross. When that happens, we can figure out where everyone is at. Because they may not have thrown for three or four weeks, but they may throw in the most pivotal innings of our entire season in two weeks.”
As far as the single-season stolen base record goes, it was only a matter of time, considering the aggressive baserunning approach Stawski brought with him to Belton in 2020. In fact, the three highest single-season stolen base totals in UMHB history came within the last three seasons, with 112 in 2022, 105 in 2023, and now 116 (and counting) in 2024.
On Tuesday night, while two of the first four outs Trinity recorded came on runners caught stealing, UMHB kept putting the pressure on in the second inning. The double steal with Perez and Herrera broke the record, and Stawski was well aware as soon as it happened.
“I’m a baserunning guy, so I knew how many we needed,” Stawski said postgame. “I knew the double steal got it.
“It’s part of our identity now. It’s no secret to our opponents. And the fun thing is, we’re going to run, they know we’re going to run, and they still have to stop it. It does create offense. We only got five hits today, but scored four runs. A lot of that is because we were moving around the bases.”
UMHB will close its regular season schedule in what will count as a non-conference series against Sul Ross State, who is in the process of transition to NCAA Division II. That series in Alpine, with a Friday doubleheader followed by the series finale on Saturday, precedes the ASC Tournament, which begins May 2. The Cru will be at minimum the No. 3 seed, but would move up to No. 2 in the event that LeTourneau sweeps UT-Dallas this weekend.
Game Notes
- In his final game at Red Murff Field, Rhett Grosz went 3-for-4, accounting for 50 percent of UMHB’s hit total in the contest. He was the only Crusader with multiple hits.
- Grosz now has 21 multi-hit games this season.
- UMHB closes the year with a 16-8 record at home. It is tied with the 2022 season for the most wins in season at Red Murff Field under Mike Stawski. It is also tied for the most home victories for The Cru within the last decade.
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