Thanks infielddad and others who have followed or been part of this program. As Coach Scannell said in the news conference this has been a 20 year process building on each team from the prior years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxndmCleRo
This was a long time coming for a great program that lost their title of "best program to not get to a CWS" last year and now "best program to not win a CWS", partially due some bad luck (seriously), but mostly for some great teams from Linfiield, Chapman, Whitworth, Pomona, Emory, WI Point, WI LaCrosse, and probably a few others that I missed.
Also congrats to Keystone in an amazing year for them to get to the championship series in their first trip to the CWS is pretty special.
Many of us close to the Trinity program thought that last year’s team was one that was going to win it all due to their balanced pitching, defense, and offense, but this year’s team showed that you can win a championship with offense and defense. Pitching to this team 1-9 was really tough for opponents. However, for all the talk about the offense, there were some amazing defensive plays and this was the critical difference this year IMO. How the Trinity shortstop Connor Moore was not on the gold glove list boggles my mind.
In the end it is really a mental grind for teams to get through the Regionals and CWS and make it to the end. Sure teams need talent, but the ones that get to the end have to have amazing mental toughness, and I think a lot of people (and players) maybe don’t realize how important this is. It really is a grind, especially when you throw in weather delays like they get in the Midwest this time of year.
It will be really sweet to see the Walnut and Bronze sitting in the lobby on my next trip to San Antonio.
For parents and players coming up, if your son is smart and has D1 talent (or is maybe a late bloomer and will develop into D1 talent) and wants to get a plus education add Trinity to your list. Coach Scannell and his team are pretty special to play for as others have noted. The pitching coach, Dave Smith has been on the cutting edge in developing pitchers for many years, Kyle Boddy at driveline (who I have a lot of respect for) was probably a kid when Coach Smith introduced weighted ball and similar programs their years ago. Finally it is also possible for a STEM major to play baseball at a high national level and be on the field as well as get a great education that is particularly difficult at most high performing D1 programs.
Congrats to the Tiger Nation, it was great to see the #tigerpile last night!