UTA Baseball Wins At UC Santa Barbara
{fshare id=6139}
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – After five total runs came through for both teams in the first six innings of the game, UT Arlington’s offense exploded for a five-run seventh that helped propel the Mavericks to a 7-5 win over No. 16 UC Santa Barbara.
“I thought that was a great win right there,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “After how we scuffled Wednesday against DBU we faced by far the best arm we’ve seen all year. We battled and got him out of there and got a couple of big hits when we needed to, which was enough.”
The Mavericks (11-8, 4-2 SBC) hit .272 while allowing the Gauchos (13-6, 0-0 Big West) to hit .306 in the box en route to picking up their second win in the past week over a ranked opponent. UTA also left seven runners on-base compared to 13 left on for UCSB.
Zach Hobbs (1-1) picked up his first win this season as the senior went 2.2 innings on the mound with two earned runs and two hits allowed.
The Mavericks jumped out to an early lead in the opening inning when Matt McLean took the opening pitch of the game and sent it to left center field for a single. After Travis Sibley pushed McLean to second on the bunt, Jackson Morris came to the plate and knocked one to right field for an RBI double. Morris’ day ended going an impressive 4-of-4 at the plate with four RBI.
The Gauchos knotted the game back up at one run apiece in the
second inning with a two-out single to center field that brought one run across.
The Mavs mimicked their score in the first inning in the sixth when Morris notched his second hit of the day to bring in McLean to score the go-ahead run. McLean reached base in three of his at-bats going 1-of-3 at the plate with three runs while also being walked twice.
UCSB took ahold of its first lead in the game thanks to a two-run inning in the bottom of the sixth. The Gauchos used a one-run homer to tie the game before sending one home when the Mavericks walked the batter with the bases loaded taking a 3-2 lead.
Sibley came up big for the Mavs in the seventh inning as he stepped into the box with a pair of outs on the board and the bases loaded. The Frisco native went ahead in the count 2-1 and sent the fourth pitch of the at-bat to deep left field to bring in a trio of runs which put UTA on top 5-3. Sibley ended the day 1-of-3 at the plate with three RBI and one run.
Any thoughts of UTA becoming content with the three-run inning fell by the wayside with Morris’ two-run shot to left field to put the Mavs on top 7-3 heading into the bottom half of the inning.
The Gauchos looked to close the gap with a two-run eighth inning to cut the Mavs lead to two runs, but closer Colin Tornberg shut down UCSB in the ninth picking up his sixth save of the season and his eighth career save. Tornberg now is tied for seventh in single season saves by a Maverick and tied for sixth in career saves.
“It’s a good club,” Thomas added. “This was a little unexpected to score that many. I thought it would be a low scoring deal and that’s tough to win. We got enough cushion and we needed it at the end. That’s a really good club with good arms and we’re just fortunate to win, but we’re happy about it.”
The Mavericks will return to action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. (CT) game against the Gauchos.
