UTA Baseball Season Ends
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TROY, Ala. – UT Arlington’s season came to an end on Friday night with a 5-1 loss to Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Riddle-Pace Field.
“It wasn’t exactly the ending that we wanted, but I’m proud of the effort and we just came up short tonight,” UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. “I thought the effort was always there, tonight especially, and I really thought Zach Hobbs pitched really well coming in and settling the game down for us. We had a few chances, but give them credit that they shut us down when they needed to. When you’re playing a good team you have to play really good baseball. I thought it was a good effort, just a disappointing ending.”
Hobbs was impressive in his final game donning the Maverick uniform as he allowed three hits and no runs in 4.1 innings of relief action. The left-handed pitcher also struck out four Louisiana batters, while walking none. Brad Vassar (2-7) was tagged with the loss, giving up two hits and two runs in one inning on the mound.
UTA came into the game with the opportunity to advance to the final four teams in the tournament, but Louisiana was able to take an early lead as they pushed four runs across in the first two innings of play.
Five Maverick players registered a hit against the Ragin’ Cajuns, but 13 strike outs doomed UTA as it left seven on base. The Mavs recorded five hits on the night compared to 12 for Louisiana.
The Mavericks put Christian Hollie in scoring position with two outs in the third inning thanks to a single by Travis Sibley, but Hollie was caught trying to advance to third base on a pitch in the dirt that ended the inning.
Darien McLemore hit a double to right field in the fifth inning, putting himself in scoring position with no outs. However, two ground outs and a fly out by the Mavericks left the junior infielder stranded on third.
UTA took advantage of a lead-off double by Matt McLean in the sixth as Levi Scott drove a ball through the left side for a RBI single that cut the Louisiana lead to four runs at 5-1.
The Mavericks finished the season with a 24-32 record that included three victories over ranked teams. UTA’s 2015 slate included nine games against teams rated in the RPI top 15.
