FROM PRESS RELEASE
SHERMAN, Texas – The University of Texas at Tyler baseball team fell to Austin College, 8-7, on Tuesday night in Sherman in one of the strangest endings to a game in program history.
Both team’s would remain scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning when Austin would post four runs, three by home run, but with all four being unearned.
In the top of the sixth, the Patriots would answer Austin by scoring six runs of their own, to take a 6-4 lead. The highlight of the inning was a three-run triple by senior Chris Tucker (Flower Mound, Texas) to kick-off the scoring for UT Tyler.
In the bottom of the same inning, the Kangaroos would score two more runs to tie the game at six runs a piece.
The game would stay tied through nine innings, forcing what would be the tenth and decisive inning.
In the top of the tenth, Austin would load up the bases and walk junior Jared Hood (Marshall, Texas), scoring Chris Tucker. Junior Jeremy Harding (Houston, Texas) would pop up in the next at bat for the Patriots, ending the inning with UT Tyler on top, 7-6.
In the bottom of the inning, junior Beau Ziegler (North Wales, Pa.) would walk the first batter, strike out the next, give up a single, then strike out another Austin batter to put UT Tyler one out from the win. During the next at bat, the two Austin runners attempted to steal and the runner going to third appeared to be caught. However, an overthrow allowed one runner to score and the other reach third to tie the game and put the winning run in scoring position. During the same at bat, facing a 1-2 count, Austin shortstop Andy White singled to third base. White would beat the throw to first by about two steps, allowing pinch runner Brian Reed to score for the win.
With the loss, the 5th-ranked Patriots fall to 21-5 on the season, while Austin improves to 13-11.
UT Tyler will return to Irwin Field on Friday, when it opens a three-game series against UT Dallas at 6 p.m.
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