Courtesy Trinity Sports Information

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Senior starting pitchers Tim Kiely (Swampscott, Mass.) and Chandler Barnard (Lubbock, Texas) combined to allow six hits and no walks with 20 strikeouts and junior 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Maine) went 4-for-8 with four runs scored and three RBI to lead visiting Trinity to a doubleheader sweep at Wesleyan Saturday afternoon. Trinity finishes the regular season with a perfect 34-0 record and sets a new NCAA Division III mark for consecutive wins to start a season.

The Bantams won the two-game set by scores of 14-1 and 11-1. Johns Hopkins held the previous record of 33-0 but no Division III team had completed its regular season schedule without a loss in the modern era until today.

Trinity trailed, 1-0 after the first inning and for the first three innings of the first game and first four frames of the second game, but outscored the Cardinals, 24-0, after the fourth inning of both games. The Bantams took a 4-1 lead in the fourth inning of the first game, keyed by an RBI double by sophomore OF James Wood (Windham, N.H.), and senior 3B Tim Bourdon (Simsbury, Conn.) knocked in a run in the sixth frame with his second RBI single of the game. Trinity erupted for nine runs in the seventh and final inning of the 7/9 scheduled twinbill.

In the nightcap, Wesleyan starter Kit Tholen (Traverse City, Mich.) kept Trinity scoreless through four innings and fanned the first two batters of the fifth, but a hit-by-pitch and a walk set the Bantams up to score two runs on a dropped pop-up and a wild pitch. Trinity took advantage of Wesleyan mistakes in the sixth inning, as Bourdon was hit by a pitch and scored on a Cardinal error in the outfield. Trinity junior tri-captain C Sean Killeen (Greenfield, Mass.) broke the game open with an RBI double to deep center field and scored on another wild pitch.

The Bantams added five runs in the last two innings, before celebrating their history-making achievement.