Texas-Arlington Headed to Austin For NCAA Baseball Tournament
May 29, 2006
PLANO, Texas -
Fifth-seeded Texas-Arlington used four first-inning runs and a strong pitching performance from Brandon Endsley to down No. 6 Northwestern State, 8-2, in the championship game of the 2006 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament. The title is the second for the Mavs all-time, both coming in tournaments played at Vincent-Beck Stadium on the campus of Lamar University.
Texas-Arlington (29-34) now makes its fourth trip to an NCAA Regional as the Mavs will travel to Austin to face host Texas (40-19) on Friday at 3 p.m. in a game to be televised on ESPNU. This marks the third time (1990, 1992, 2006) UTA has advanced to a regional hosted by Texas. Also in the four-team Regional at Disch-Falk Field will be Stanford (30-25) and North Carolina State (38-21).
Texas is seeded No. 1 in the Regional and No. 3 overall as the NCAA seeds the top eight nationally. UTA will be the No. 4 seed in the Austin Regional while NC State is No. 2 and Standord is No. 3.
In their last NCAA appearance, UTA played in the Houston Regional, hosted by Rice, and came away with a 1-2 record after beating Houston, 7-6, in an elimination game. The Mavs enter Friday's game with a 1-6 record in NCAA Tournament action, including a 0-2 record against Texas.
UTA faced Texas in its first-ever NCAA Tournament game back in 1990 and gave the Longhorns a scare before dropping a 9-8 decision. They met again in 1992 in an elimination game and UT cruised to a 17-1 victory.
UTA and Texas played one regular-season game this year with the Mavs taking a 6-3 win in Austin on April 11. The win snapped a four-game losing streak to the Longhorns and gives UTA a 15-50 record all-time against UT.
In Saturday's SLC Championship game, Northwestern (33-28) got on the board in the top of the first after the first two were retired. Brandon Morgan collected a double and Miles Durham singled to drive him in for an early 1-0 lead.
Endsley, who entered the game with a 0-3 record and a 7.64 earned run average, would settle in from there. The freshman was making his first collegiate start. He limited the Demons to one run on seven hits while going a career-high six innings. A reliever who had made 22 appearances for UTA out of the pen this year, Endsley struck out two and did not walk a batter and recorded nine ground ball outs.
Freshman Kyle Gainley relieved Endsley in the seventh and held Northwestern to one run on four hits in three innings of work. He picked up his second save of the year as he struck out two and walked one.
Texas-Arlington got all it would need in the first inning, plating four runs. Daniel Rieder led off with a walk and advanced to second on a out by David Mcleod. Catcher Adam Moore then doubled to score Rieder and tie the game at one. After Robby Winn was hit by a pitch, he and Moore moved up to third and second on a passed ball. Ben Burum then provided the big hit of the inning, a two-run double. Brock Wilson followed an out later with a single to score Burum and give UTA a 4-1 lead.
UTA added three in the sixth and one in the eighth to push its lead to 8-1. Northwestern scratched for one in the ninth for the final margin. The Demons outhit UTA 11-9 in the contest.
Northwestern State's Daniel Clark started and lasted just 1.1 innings. He gave up three hits and all four first-inning runs to take the loss and drop his record to 8-5 on the year. Coming into the game, Clark had a 1.54 ERA. Saturday's performance followed an eight-inning outing on Wednesday in the tournament's opening game when he shut down McNeese State in a 9-1 win. In that outing, Clark pitched eight shutout innings, allowing six hits.
Texas-Arlington fought its way back through the loser's bracket after dropping its opener, 9-3, to second-seeded Texas State. The Mavs eliminated No. 1 seed McNeese State on Thursday by a 5-1 score and No. 3 Texas-San Antonio with a 2-1 gem on Friday. In Saturday's first game of the day, UTA erased a 7-1 deficit in the eighth inning against host and No. 4 Lamar to take an 8-7 win in 10 innings. The Mavs scored six in the eighth to tie it and won it with an unearned run in the top of the 10th.
Texas-Arlington became the first No. 5 seed to ever win the Southland Conference Tournament.
Five Mavs were named to the all-tournament team with Ryan Riddle earning tournament MVP honors. Joining Riddle on the team were catcher Adam Moore, first baseman Robby Winn, shortstop Kyle Rudy and pitcher Brandon Endsley.