UT Arlington Beats Texas Wesleyan

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ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas won his 200th career game Tuesday night, as the Mavericks beat Texas Wesleyan 11-3 in a nonconference game at Clay Gould Ballpark.

UT Arlington improved to 21-24 after the first game of a very busy week. The Mavericks have another nonconference home game Wednesday against Arlington Baptist at 2 p.m. UTA Arlington resumes Sun Belt Conference play Friday with the start of a three-game series at UALR.

Thomas is the second coach in UT Arlington history with at least 200 victories. All-time wins leader Butch McBroom finished with an overall record of 757-686-2 from 1974-1999. Thomas, who received a water cooler drenching from his players after the game, is 200-193.

“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it,” Thomas said of the milestone. “We’re just trying to get back to .500. We’re on a little bit of a roll, too.”

The Mavericks took a 1-0 lead in the first on Ryan Bottger’s sacrifice fly to

score Derek Miller. UT Arlington added five runs in the third to break the game open, sending 10 men to the plate and notching three hits.

Bottger finished with three RBI, including a two-run single in the sixth. Four other Mavericks drove in a run, including Drew Dowdy who had the first one his career.

UTA starter Brad Vachon (3-5) picked up the win after allowing one run on six hits in four innings. (Thomas designated a four-inning limit on Vachon before the game.) Jacob Moreland worked four innings in relief.

The Rams (26-25) didn’t help their cause with six walks and three hit batters. Texas Wesleyan finished with eight hits.