UT Arlington Breaks Open Tight Game for 10-4 Win over SFA
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - UT Arlington scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 4-4 tie on its way to a 10-4 victory over Stephen F. Austin in the day's final game at the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Whataburger Field.
Lumberjack starter Tyler Herriage had already retired the first two batters of the seventh inning before intentionally walking Michael Choice, the 2010 Southland Conference Player of the Year. Herriage walked the next two batters to load the bases for Chad Comer, who singled up the middle to break the tie with a pair of runs. Jesse Payne drove in another before Cory Ochs came on in relief. Ochs gave up a single to left to Brian Nephew to complete the four-run inning.
UTA (28-29) added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, getting an RBI single from Payne to deliver the first run. SFA's third error of the game allowed the final run to cross. The Mavericks did not commit an error.
SFA jumped out to a 3-0 lead in bottom of the second on Justin Long's three-run homer, but UT Arlington scored one in the third and two in the fourth to tie the game at 3. Each team added a run in the sixth.
Four different Mavericks had two hits, accounting for 8 of the team's 11 hits. Vaughn and Preston Beck each had two hits, while Payne and Nephew each drove in three runs. For SFA, Garrett Smith, Bo Coffman and Jordan Lewis each had two hits as SFA totaled nine in the game.
Jason Mitchell picked up the win to move to 7-5 on the season and Logan Bawcom earned his fourth save. Herriage got the loss to drop to 8-4.
UT Arlington, which won its opening-round game of the tournament for the first time since 2004, advances in the winner's bracket and will face Nicholls Thursday at 7 p.m. Stephen F. Austin will play Texas State at noon in an elimination game at noon.
Wednesday Results
No. 6 McNeese State 8, No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana 7
No. 7 Lamar 4, No. 2 Northwestern State 3
No. 8 Nicholls 13, No. 1 Texas State 2
No. 5 UT Arlington 10, No. 4 Stephen F. Austin 4
Thursday Schedule
Southeastern Louisiana vs. Northwestern State (Home), 9 a.m.
Texas State vs. Stephen F. Austin (H), Noon
Lamar vs. McNeese State (H), 4 p.m.
Nicholls vs. UT Arlington (H), 7 p.m.
UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas
"Their guy is really good, Tyler (Herriage, SFA starting pitcher) gives us trouble. I think we won 1-0 last time we played and he pitched great. We knew we were going to be in a dog fight and he was throwing up a lot of Ks early on. I think we kind of ran him out of pitches and then took advantage of a few breaks and started hitting at the end. Jason (Mitchell, UT Arlington starting pitcher) gave us all he had and then Logan (Bawcom) did a great job in relief."
On intentional walk to Michael Choice
"I'm not doubting the move at all, he has the ability to hit it out with one swing and make it a 4-4 game right there. That did lead to a big inning but so did a few other things, I give our guys credit for getting on the board there with two outs."
UT Arlington catcher Chad Comer
On game-winning hit
"They've been pitching around Mike (Choice) all season long and we've had some players stepping up but lately. I haven't been stepping up. I've been slumping a little bit and working with our hitting coach on staying up the middle with the ball and hitting the fastball early. I got a fastball early in the count over the plate and hit it up the middle."
Stephen F. Austin head coach Johnny Cardenas
"We made a decision to walk Mike Choice thinking we didn't want him to beat us in that situation. We wanted to kind of pitch around him and then go get the next guys. The guys who followed him did a good job of having good at-bats. Our pitcher lost a little focus so you can blame me a little bit for the intentional walk but we tried to play the percentages there and it bit us in the butt.
"Other than that, we had our shortstop get ejected, that was a big momentum breaker at that point and we just didn't get the job done."