After a dramatic playoff run that included three extra innings victories, the No. 3 Trinity Knights season ended at the hands of the Fillmore Flashes in Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division 7 Championship on Saturday afternoon at UC Riverside.

The 2018 Trinity Knights baseball team has been no stranger to dramatic late-game comebacks.

They walked off in the eighth inning at The Master’s University in the opening round and semifinals. They scored three runs in the top of of the eighth inning in the second round to escape Bloomington Christian with a win.

So when the Knights loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning and down 7-3, there was a feeling among the Trinity faithful that good things were on the way.

Perhaps the magic had all run out, but on this day it wasn’t meant to be.

“Fifth inning we had the bases loaded with one out and didn’t get the key hit, sixth inning we had the bases loaded with no outs and we didn’t get the key hit,” said head coach Mike Franchimone after the game.

“That was with our leadoff hitter and usually when we put our runs on the board with those guys,” Franchimone added.

Both teams made some mistakes on pop fly’s, losing the ball in the glare of the sun, but the championship will to win was evident in both dugouts. Not to mention a little chaos from the umpires sprinkled in.

The Knights got on the board first in the third inning with Judah Palmisano’s two out RBI single, which brought up starting pitcher Drew Pfeiffer with runners on the corners.

Pfeiffer sent one in to the left-center gap for what would’ve been a standup 2-RBI double, but got a little too aggressive in trying to stretch it to a triple. He was tagged out at third from the throw, and the umpire called that only one run had crossed the plate when it looked from the vantage point of everyone in the stadium that the third run had long crossed the plate before Pfeiffer had gotten tagged.

Nonetheless, Trinity took their 2-0 lead into the bottom of the inning where the Flashes proceeded to score four runs and never look back.

No. 3 Trinity Classical Academy finishes the year 18-4 with a CIF championship game appearance, a great accomplishment for the program.

“We’ve abundantly done–exceeded more than I ever expected and I’m so humbled to be a part of this ball club, and everyday I got to be on the field with these kids [as head coach] they impressed me.”

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