UTA Baseball Tops TCU
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ARLINGTON, Texas – A seven-run offensive outburst in the seventh propelled UT Arlington past No. 2 TCU in an 8-1 victory at Clay Gould Ballpark on Tuesday night.
“When you have a good atmosphere and a good crowd like we had tonight, kind of like the Texas game at Globe Life, you want to play well,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “I’ll give our guys credit. We played better baseball tonight than we played at the ballpark and we needed win.”
The Mavericks (13-14, 4-5 Sun Belt) were propelled by a 10-of-18 performance with two outs on the board which included each of their seven runs in the seventh inning. The game marked the highest run total allowed by the Horned Frogs (21-5, 4-2 Big 12) this season. The win also gave UTA its first win over a second-ranked team since April 20, 2014 when they took down No. 2 Louisiana 5-4.
The UTA offense was brought back to life by Levi Scott who finished the day 2-of-4 at the plate with three RBI and two runs scored. The senior infielder’s solo shot in the bottom of the first gave the Mavs their first lead of the day, while his two-out double brought in a pair of runs that helped solidify the victory.
Darien McLemore did his part, going 2-of-3 with one run scored and one
walk. Matt McLean also helped out with his 2-of-5 performance with one run and one RBI.
The Maverick pitching efforts were led by freshman right-handed pitcher Daniel James who came away with the victory after allowing three hits and no earned runs in his three innings on the hill. James was part of the Maverick pitching staff that allowed one earned run, while walking one against the Horned Frogs.
Scott put the Mavericks on top early as he went yard on a 3-1 count when he sent the ball deep over the right field wall. The shot, Scott’s third home run of the year, put UTA on top 1-0 heading into the second inning.
The equalizer came across for the Horned Frogs in the fifth inning when a triple to the right field wall brought in the tying run.
UTA regained control of the lead with an offensive outpouring in the seventh inning as the Mavs brought in seven runs to take an 8-1 lead into the eighth inning. RJ Williams and Darien McLemore got things started off as they hit back-to-back two-out singles. Brady Cox was able to bring in the go-ahead run as he hit a deep shot to right field that landed between the two outfielders for a two-run double.
The offensive rhythm was contagious as a wild pitch and a walk put runners on the corners with two outs. Matt McLean then continued the trend as his hit took a hard bounce over the first-basemen for an RBI single.
Travis Sibley stepped into the box and sent a bullet up the middle of the field that brought in a run and put UTA up 5-1. The Mavericks continued to go full throttle at the plate as Scott recorded an RBI double followed up with a RBI single by Jerame Littell.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a little bit of a gap where we can breath a little bit,” Thomas said of the Mavericks seven-run inning. “It felt good to do that tonight. It was just a good team win. We pitched it well, played good defense and scored when we needed to against a really good club who we’ll be playing in a couple of weeks.”
