UTA Baseball Defeats UALR
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ARLINGTON, Texas – UT Arlington opened up its series against UALR with an impressive shutout victory, while also registering a season-high 18 hits at Clay Gould Ballpark on Friday night.
“We needed that,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “We played pretty well tonight. We shut them out and had a better approach against a lefty then we’ve had in a while. I was proud of the effort and hopefully we can just grasp this momentum and keep going with it.”
The Mavericks (18-26, 9-13 SBC) were an impressive 11-for-24 on the night with runners on base on their way to snapping a five-game losing streak. The Trojans (14-26, 10-11) dropped their seventh straight game, going 9-for-35 in the box. Every UTA player recorded a hit with six players turning in a multi-hit outing.
Travis Sibley jumpstarted the Maverick offense, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a home run. Matt McLean also got in on the action with a 2-of-3 outing that included three RBI.
UTA kept the UALR batters on edge as Chad Nack and TJ Whidby combined for
the shutout effort. Nack (4-4) went seven innings on the hill, allowing nine hits and no runs. The Sanger native also registered three strikeouts. Whidby was strong out of the bullpen as he gave up no hits or runs, while fanning four in his two innings of action.
“Our pitching staff has done a tremendous job and it’s nice to see that we can finally score for them,” McLean said. “Things just went right for us tonight, but it’s comforting and takes some weight off your shoulders knowing that the pitching staff is going to really compete on the mound.”
The Mavericks jumped out to an early lead in the opening frame with Sibley’s solo shot over the left-field wall. The home run was the third of the season for Sibley.
The scoring continued in the second inning with a pair of runs putting UTA on top by three. A Trojan wild pitch brought in the first run of the inning and a Sibley single to right field brought in the second to give the Mavs a 3-0 advantage.
With a two-run third inning giving UTA a comfortable five run lead, the Mavericks added to their cushion with a three-run fifth to go on top 8-0. UT Arlington opened up the inning with six straight singles to extend its lead.
The Mavs added four runs in the seventh for good measure, setting the final margin of victory at 12 runs. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, McLean sent the ball to the right-field wall for a triple that pushed across a pair of runs. Later in the inning a Cody Farrell single to center field made room for Sibley to cross the plate as the final UTA run of the day.
“It’s so much easier to coach when you have a lead because you can take some chances and you can do some things,” Thomas added. “A lot of the games we’ve been losing hasn’t been because we’ve been blowing leads, but because we just get down early and can’t build on it.”
The Mavericks will return to action on Saturday with a 2 p.m. matchup with the Trojans. The Saturday game is set to be broadcast on ESPN3 with Matt Stewart and John Gregory on the call.
