UTA Sweeps App State
BOONE, N.C. – Colton Turner had three hits and drove in four runs and the UT Arlington Mavericks completed a weekend sweep of Appalachian State with a 7-5 win over the Mountaineers on Sunday afternoon at Smith Stadium.
UTA (28-24, 14-13 SBC) bunched six runs together in the middle innings to build a 7-2 lead behind starter Jake Wilcox, who struck out five in 5.0-plus innings of work in earning his fourth win of the season. But App State (15-36, 9-21 SBC) got three back in the sixth and had the tying run at the plate in the ninth before the Mavs were able to record the final out.
“This was a big win for us, especially to build some momentum late in the season and heading into the conference tournament,” coach Darin Thomas said. “That was a talented team we played, but we got big pitching and good hitting throughout the weekend.”
The win secured the first road sweep for the Mavs since 2014 and that, along with a loss by Arkansas State at Texas State, secured a berth in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for UTA. The Mavs and Texas State will square off in the final weekend of the season with both deadlocked, along with Georgia Southern, in a three-way tie for fifth place in the league.
Turner led a 12-hit Maverick attack with his three-hit day, blasting his fourth homer of the season in a four-run fifth that broke a 2-2 tie. Quintin Rohrbaugh scored twice and picked up a double and a triple in the game, two of the six extra-base hits UTA had on the day.
Jerame Littell added a pair of singles, while Darien McLemore
cranked his fifth home run of the year in the second inning.
Jacob Moreland got his fifth save of the year, throwing for the third straight day and getting Grayson Atwood to ground out to third with two runners base to end the game. Dylan Schneider turned in a great relief outing, holding the Mountaineers scoreless for 3. 1 innings after entering in the bottom of the fifth.
Colin Schmid took the loss for the Mountaineers, allowing seven runs in 5.2 innings of work with five punchouts.
McLemore gave UTA an early 1-0 lead with a one-out solo homer in the top of the second and Colton Turner made it a 2-0 game in the fourth with an RBI single that scored Rohrbaugh who had led off the inning with a triple.
The Mountaineers evened things up in the bottom half of the fourth when Chandler Seagle connected on a two-run homer off of Wilcox, but the Mavs responded with four runs in the next half inning. UTA did all its damage in the fifth with two outs as it took advantage of Christian Hollie reaching on a wild pitch on what would have been a strikeout to end the inning.
After a walk to Brady Cox, Rohrbaugh doubled Hollie home to put UTA back in front 3-2. One batter later Turner blasted his second home run of the weekend out to left field, a three-run shot that pushed the lead to 6-2.
Wilcox kept App State off the board in the bottom half of the inning and Matt McLean singled home Josh Minjarez with two outs in the top of the sixth to make it 7-2. But the Mountaineers got to the Maverick starter in the bottom of the frame, putting the first two hitters on before Tanner Mann-Fix got a run home with a double to right.
The Mavs then went to the bullpen for Dylan Schneider who minimized the damage with three fly outs and got UTA to the seventh with a 7-5 advantage. UTA couldn’t add an insurance run in the final three innings and App State put together a threat in the ninth when pinch hitter Drake Zupcic led off with a single.
Daniel James then got Matt Vernon to ground out, but issued a walk to Brian Bauk to bring up Atwood. UTA then turned to Moreland and the senior threw two pitches to the App State cleanup hitter, getting him to ground out to third for the final out.
UTA will close out the regular season this weekend at Clay Gould Ballpark when it welcomes Texas State to town. The first game of the series is set to begin on Thursday.
