UT Baseball Beats ULM

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ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington ran its Sun Belt Conference winning streak to four by holding on for a 10-8 victory Friday night over ULM at Clay Gould Ballpark.

The Mavericks (13-17) evened their league record at 5-5 in the series opener, while the Warhawks (12-19) dropped to 4-6. The three-game set concludes with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. The teams were slated to play Sunday, but the threat of inclement weather necessitated a schedule change.

UT Arlington pounded out 17 hits, including three each from Matt Shortall, Derek Miller and Travis Sibley. Eight starters had at least one hit. Shortall racked up four RBI to push his season total to a team-high 29.

The ball was flying out of the park early, with four home runs through the first two innings and six for the game. The Warhawks went deep twice in the top of the first to take a 3-0 lead, but it didn’t last long.

Ryan Bottger drilled his third homer of the season in the bottom of the

inning to get the Mavericks on the board. Eric Tate hit his first in the second inning, a solo shot to left to cut the ULM lead to 3-2. UTA tied it on Shortall’s fielder choice to score Peter Cuomo.

After the ULM went up 4-3 in the fourth, the Mavericks answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Levi Scott had a two-run single and Tate followed with single for a 6-4 edge.

The Mavericks padded their advantage to 9-5 with another three runs in the fifth. Shortall ripped a two-run single to right and another Maverick came home on Greg McCall’s base hit.

UTA started Brad Vachon lasted 4.2 innings, giving up five earned runs on seven hits. Zach Hobbs (2-0) came on in relief and worked 2.0 innings to earn the win. The Warhawks scored once in the ninth and left two men on before Jess Amedee nailed down his second save.