UTA Baseball Upsets TCU
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FORT WORTH, Texas – UT Arlington baseball overpowered crosstown rival TCU 10-2 in Fort Worth on Tuesday night.
The Mavericks (2-5) defeated TCU (6-2), ranked 12th in the Collegiate Baseball Poll, with huge offensive production and solid pitching. UTA’s last win against a ranked opponent was March 5, 2013 against then-No. 12 Oklahoma in Arlington, 6-1.
“TCU is an Omaha caliber club and we’ve got Texas A&M next Tuesday,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “Hopefully playing those teams and winning against those teams shows our guys we can compete with anyone, especially in a tough conference like the Sun Belt.”
Derek Miller, Matt Shortall and Travis Sibley led the offensive effort with three hits each followed closely by John Michael Twichell who had two. Darien McLemore and Greg McCall also had a hit against TCU, but McCall’s sailed out of the yard for his first home run of the year.
UTA starter Brad Vachon had his longest showing of the season against the
Horned Frogs with 6.2 innings pitched. He allowed just one run on six hits with only one walk and two extra base hits as well as seven strikeouts.
Both the Mavs and Frogs were held to just one hit each through the first two frames until UTA knocked five consecutive hits with two outs in the top of the third. A single from Miller followed by three straight doubles from McLemore, Shortall and Twichell to put UTA on top 3-0. McCall opened up the Maverick lead to 6-0 with a three-run home run over the centerfield fence.
TCU responded in the bottom of the third, but plated just one run before Vachon notched his fourth strikeout of the game to quiet the rally. McLemore got the six-run lead back for UTA in the next inning by scoring Sibley on a groundout to first.
The Frogs threatened in the bottom of the sixth frame with back-to-back two-out singles but could not break UTA’s six-run hold on the game. TCU continued to test the Mavericks’ lead with a double to start the seventh, putting Frogs on the corners before Chase Weaver entered in relief for Vachon to strand both runners.
UTA extended its lead to 8-1 after the third TCU error of the night brought home Sibley, who reached on his second hit in the game. The Horned Frogs plated two Mavericks on walks to make it a nine-run game in the eighth, 10-1.
TCU scored a run in the bottom of the innning, but UT Arlington would take the game, 10-2.
The Mavs return home after four games on the road to host a series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Clay Gould Ballpark. Game 1 of the four-game set begins Friday at 6:30 p.m.
