2016 Trinidad Triggers Season Recap - The Greatest Season in Triggers History Ends One Win Short of a Championship

The 2016 Trinidad Triggers season remains one of the defining seasons in franchise history. After four consecutive playoff appearances and years of building Trinidad into one of the most established markets in the Pecos League, the Triggers finally broke through and reached the Pecos League Championship Series for the first time.

It was the deepest postseason run Trinidad had ever made and the culmination of the first great era of Triggers baseball. Manager Royce Holder assembled another talented roster, the Triggers survived the difficult Mountain Division playoff race and advanced all the way to the championship series against the Tucson Saguaros.

Trinidad came agonizingly close to completing the run.

The Triggers traveled to Tucson and pushed the championship series to its deciding game. Trinidad carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of the final game and stood only three outs away from winning the first Pecos League championship in franchise history.

Tucson rallied.

The Saguaros scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth and defeated Trinidad 5-4, winning the Pecos League championship in dramatic walk-off fashion.

For Trinidad, it was a devastating ending to the best postseason run the franchise had ever experienced. It was also the end of an era. The 2016 season would be Royce Holder's final year managing the Triggers.

Trinidad Enters Its Fifth Season as an Established Winner

By 2016, the Trinidad Triggers were no longer a new Pecos League franchise trying to establish professional baseball at Central Park.

The Triggers had become one of the league's most consistent organizations.

Trinidad had qualified for the postseason in each of its first four seasons. The inaugural 2012 club reached the playoffs. The 2013 team went 37-31 while being followed by the television cameras that eventually produced "The Pecos League" on Fox Sports 1. The 2014 Triggers finished 35-27 and pushed eventual champion Santa Fe to three games. The 2015 club then produced the best regular season in franchise history to that point, going 43-18 and winning the Northern Division before suffering a shocking playoff loss to Santa Fe.

The one accomplishment missing from the franchise resume was a trip to the Pecos League Championship Series.

The 2016 Triggers finally accomplished it.

Royce Holder Returns for His Second Season

Royce Holder returned for his second season as manager after guiding the 2015 Triggers to the Northern Division title.

Holder had inherited a successful organization and immediately elevated it. His first Trinidad club had dominated the regular season, and although the 2015 playoff elimination was disappointing, there was little question that the Triggers had developed into one of the strongest organizations in the league.

The challenge in 2016 was different.

The Pecos League was growing and changing. Tucson had entered the league and immediately assembled an exceptionally strong roster. Roswell remained dangerous. Santa Fe was always a threat, and the league's Mountain Division featured several teams capable of creating problems throughout the summer.

Trinidad would have to earn everything it accomplished.

Holder's team responded by putting together another winning season and positioning itself for the postseason.

A Familiar Core Returns to Trinidad

The 2016 Triggers featured several players who had already become familiar names at Central Park.

Brian Frazier returned after being an important part of the powerful 2015 club. Eric Williams was also back after his remarkable previous season. John Nicholson returned to the lineup, giving Trinidad another experienced player who understood what it meant to play for the Triggers and compete through a Pecos League season.

They were joined by a roster that included Trevor Sealey, Caleb Baker, Edmund Cheatham, Jason Webb, Anthony Puma, Erick Magee, Christopher Buitron, Nicholas Todero, Bradley Cuyos, Shane Billings and Erik Poldroo among others.

The combination gave Holder a mixture of returning players and newcomers capable of continuing Trinidad's tradition of offensive baseball.

Central Park had become a place where hitters could put up significant numbers, and the Triggers again fielded a lineup capable of producing runs throughout the order.

The Landscape of the Pecos League Changes

One of the biggest stories in the Pecos League in 2016 was the arrival of the Tucson Saguaros.

Tucson represented one of the largest markets the Pecos League had ever entered. The Saguaros played their primary home games at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, giving the league a facility and market dramatically different from many of its traditional locations.

The Saguaros weren't simply an expansion team trying to survive their first season.

They immediately became the best team in the league.

Tucson finished the regular season 51-14, setting a Pecos League record for victories and establishing itself as the clear championship favorite. The Saguaros combined a powerful offense with one of the league's strongest pitching staffs and turned their inaugural season into a dominant run through the regular season.

For Trinidad, that meant the road to the championship eventually would have to go through Tucson.

Trinidad Returns to the Playoffs

The Triggers once again did what they had done every year since entering the Pecos League: they qualified for the postseason.

That consistency had become remarkable.

Five seasons of Trinidad Triggers baseball had now produced five playoff appearances. Players changed. Managers changed. Opponents came and went. The league expanded and its divisional structure evolved.

Trinidad kept reaching the postseason.

But simply making the playoffs was no longer enough.

The disappointment of 2015 remained fresh. That team had dominated the regular season only to have its championship hopes disappear almost immediately against Santa Fe.

The 2016 Triggers were determined to go further.

The Triggers Finally Break Through

For the first time in franchise history, Trinidad survived the divisional playoffs and earned a place in the Pecos League Championship Series.

It represented a major milestone for the organization.

The Triggers had spent five summers attempting to reach this point. Central Park had hosted playoff games before, but Trinidad had never been able to advance through the final obstacle separating the team from the league championship series.

In 2016, that changed.

The playoff victory guaranteed that Trinidad would play for a Pecos League championship for the first time.

For the players, it represented an opportunity to finish what the 2015 club had appeared capable of accomplishing. For Holder, it was an opportunity to add a championship to what had already been an extremely successful two-year run as manager.

For Trinidad baseball fans, their team was finally playing for the title.

Trinidad vs. Tucson for the Pecos League Championship

The championship matchup provided a fascinating contrast.

On one side were the Trinidad Triggers, an established Pecos League franchise appearing in the championship series for the first time after five consecutive postseason appearances.

On the other side were the Tucson Saguaros, an expansion team attempting to win the championship during its inaugural season after completing a record-setting 51-win regular season.

Tucson entered as the favorite.

Trinidad wasn't intimidated.

The Triggers had spent years playing meaningful games and had experienced virtually every type of Pecos League environment. They had survived long road trips, offensive shootouts, difficult playoff losses and the pressure of postseason races.

Now they had an opportunity to finish the journey.

The Championship Series Goes to the Limit

Trinidad refused to allow Tucson's dominant regular season to translate into an easy championship.

The Triggers battled the Saguaros and forced the series to its deciding game.

Everything the franchise had built since its inaugural season in 2012 came down to one night at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson.

One game would determine the Pecos League champion.

The Triggers were attempting to win the first championship in franchise history. Tucson was attempting to complete one of the greatest inaugural seasons the Pecos League had ever seen.

The deciding game became one of the most memorable championship games in league history.

Trinidad Takes a Lead Into the Ninth Inning

The Triggers put themselves in position to win.

Through eight innings, Trinidad had done enough to contain the powerful Tucson lineup and carried a 4-2 advantage into the bottom of the ninth.

Three outs.

That was all that separated the Trinidad Triggers from a Pecos League championship.

For a franchise that had been eliminated from the postseason four consecutive years, the moment was enormous. Trinidad was finally on the verge of breaking through.

Tucson, however, still had one final opportunity.

Tucson's Ninth-Inning Comeback

The Saguaros mounted one final rally in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Trinidad couldn't record the three outs it needed before Tucson erased the deficit.

The Saguaros scored three times in the inning, turning Trinidad's 4-2 lead into a 5-4 Tucson victory.

The game was over.

So was Trinidad's season.

Tucson celebrated an inaugural-season championship while the Triggers were left to process how close they had come to winning the first title in franchise history.

There was no next inning and no next game.

Trinidad had been three outs away.

The Most Painful Loss in Triggers History

The ending made the 2016 championship game unlike any previous postseason defeat Trinidad had experienced.

In earlier seasons, the Triggers had been eliminated before reaching the championship series. Those losses were disappointing, but there had always been another hurdle remaining even if Trinidad had won.

This time there was nothing beyond Tucson.

The Triggers were playing for the championship and entered the final half-inning with the lead.

Had Trinidad recorded three more outs, the 2016 Triggers would have returned to Colorado as Pecos League champions.

Instead, Tucson completed the comeback and became the 2016 Pecos League champion.

It was simultaneously Trinidad's greatest postseason accomplishment and its most heartbreaking ending.

The Best Season in Trinidad Triggers History

Despite the final loss, 2016 represented the high point of the franchise's first five seasons.

The 2015 club had produced the better regular-season record and won its division, but the 2016 Triggers accomplished something no Trinidad team before them had done.

They reached the Pecos League Championship Series.

They won in the postseason.

They went on the road against a Tucson team that had won 51 regular-season games and pushed the championship series to its final inning.

And they came within three outs of winning it all.

For those reasons, the 2016 season stands as the best overall season in Trinidad Triggers history to that point.

Royce Holder's Final Season in Trinidad

The championship loss also marked the end of Royce Holder's tenure as manager of the Trinidad Triggers.

Holder's two seasons produced one of the strongest stretches in franchise history.

In 2015, he guided Trinidad to a 43-18 regular-season record and the Northern Division championship. That team was one of the strongest regular-season clubs the Pecos League had seen but was eliminated by Santa Fe before reaching the championship series.

One year later, Holder and the Triggers finished the job in the divisional playoffs and advanced all the way to the league finals.

His final game as Trinidad manager was therefore the closest the franchise had ever come to winning the Pecos League championship.

Holder left behind a team that had established a winning culture and an organization that had reached the playoffs in every season of its existence.

Five Years of Winning Baseball at Central Park

The conclusion of the 2016 season also provided an opportunity to appreciate what had happened in Trinidad since the Triggers were created in 2012.

Few expansion franchises could have asked for a more consistent beginning.

Trinidad reached the playoffs in 2012.

The Triggers returned in 2013 while becoming the subject of the television series that would air nationally on Fox Sports 1.

They posted another winning season and playoff appearance in 2014 while Nick Rodesky earned an opportunity with the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

They won the Northern Division with a dominant 43-18 record in 2015.

Then, in 2016, they finally reached the Pecos League Championship Series.

Central Park had gone from hosting a brand-new independent baseball team to hosting one of the most consistently successful franchises in the league.

A Championship That Was Almost Trinidad's

Years later, the final score remains the simplest way to understand how close the Triggers came.

Tucson 5, Trinidad 4.

One run separated the Triggers from a championship.

More painfully, Trinidad had held a two-run lead entering the bottom of the ninth inning.

Baseball doesn't award championships for getting close, and the 2016 Pecos League championship officially belongs to the Tucson Saguaros. Tucson completed an extraordinary inaugural season by winning 51 regular-season games and then surviving Trinidad's challenge in the championship series.

But the loss doesn't diminish what the Triggers accomplished.

The 2016 team went further than any Trinidad team before it. It finally carried the franchise into the championship series and demonstrated that the Triggers could compete with the best team in the Pecos League on the league's biggest stage.

The End of Trinidad's First Great Era

The 2016 season can also be viewed as the conclusion of the first era of Trinidad Triggers baseball.

The franchise had gone through an extraordinary amount in only five seasons. Trinidad had introduced professional baseball to Central Park, been followed for an entire season by a television production crew, appeared nationally on Fox Sports 1, sent players to higher levels of professional baseball, won a division and finally reached the championship series.

Royce Holder's departure after the season meant new leadership would take over in 2017.

The next version of the Triggers would have its own players, personalities and challenges.

But every future Trinidad team would be measured in some way against what the 2016 club accomplished.

The standard was no longer simply making the playoffs.

The 2016 Triggers had shown that Trinidad could play for a championship.

Three Outs Away

The history of the 2016 Trinidad Triggers ultimately comes down to two very different ways of remembering the same season.

It can be remembered for the heartbreak.

Trinidad led 4-2 entering the bottom of the ninth inning of the deciding championship game and lost 5-4. The Triggers were three outs away from the first Pecos League championship in franchise history and couldn't finish it.

Or it can be remembered for the accomplishment.

After four consecutive playoff appearances ended short of the championship series, Trinidad finally broke through. The Triggers reached the Pecos League Finals, pushed a 51-win Tucson team to the final inning of the season and completed the greatest postseason run Trinidad had experienced.

Both are part of the story.

The disappointment of the final inning cannot be separated from the greatness required to reach that moment in the first place.

The 2016 Trinidad Triggers came closer to a Pecos League championship than any previous team in franchise history. They gave Trinidad its first appearance in the league finals, took one of the best teams in Pecos League history to the limit and ended Royce Holder's tenure with the franchise on the biggest stage the league could offer.

They didn't bring the championship trophy back to Central Park.

They came within three outs.

And that is why the 2016 Trinidad Triggers remain one of the most memorable teams in franchise history.

2016 Trinidad Triggers
Manager: Royce Holder
Home Field: Trinidad Central Park
Postseason: Pecos League Championship Series
Championship Opponent: Tucson Saguaros
Championship Result: Tucson defeated Trinidad
Deciding Championship Game: Tucson 5, Trinidad 4
Trinidad Lead Entering Bottom of Ninth: 4-2
Pecos League Champion: Tucson Saguaros
Historical Significance: First Pecos League Championship Series appearance in Trinidad Triggers history
Managerial Significance: Royce Holder's final season as Trinidad manager