Game 3: Texas-Dallas 10, Texas Lutheran 7 (10); TLU eliminated
CLINTON, MS (05.02.09) – The UT Dallas baseball team found its missing offense Saturday afternoon and is still alive in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament, rallying for a 10-7 win over Texas Lutheran in a 10-inning elimination game Saturday afternoon.
UTD’s Johnnie Martinez launched a three-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to save the Comets, who had blown an early 6-2 lead, and send UTD to the tournament semifnals against the loser of Mississippi College and UT-Tyler at 7 pm Saturday night.
UTD dominated the elimination game completelyearly, but found itself in a big jam after the bottom of the 9th, when TLU rallied from a 7-4 deficit with two outs via three hits and a huge error on UTD’s Jake Eisman that allowed the tying runs to score. The Comets (28-17), who had dominated the game with 16 hits through the first nine innings, had to rely on a strikeout from reliever Mason Thompson with the winning run at third base to send the game to extra innings, then put two runners on before Martinez sent the first pitch he saw from TLU’s Jeremiah Steinert over the rightfield wall.
UT-Dallas Recap
Texas Lutheran Recap
Photo Gallery
Brannon Walls hit a two-run homerun in the win.
Game 4: Mississippi College 15, Texas-Tyler 4
CLINTON, MS – The Mississippi College Choctaws (30-14) won their second consecutive game in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament by 10-run rule with a 15-4 win over the 12th-ranked University of Texas at Tyler Patriots (35-10).
The biggest hits for the Choctaws were three homeruns from Brannon Walls, Bo Bell and Dakota Bodree. Walls hit a two run blast in the top of the first inning to give the Choctaws a quick 2-0 lead. With the scored tied 4-4 in the fifth, Bell hit a shot over the centerfield wall to give the Choctaws a 6-4 advantage.
Bodree’s homer, a three-run shot, gave the Choctaws a comfortable 9-4 lead in the sixth inning. The Choctaws tacked on three more runs in the inning and three more in the eighth for the final margin.
Senior Jack Craven (6-2) earned the win with a complete game effort. Craven surrendered just two earned runs on seven hits in eight innings. He struck out six batters and walked three.
Booher lasted five innings for UT-Tyler and allowed six earned runs on seven hits. Booher struck out three batters.
The Choctaws advance to the ASC Championship game tomorrow at Frierson Field with a scheduled first pitch set for 1:00 p.m. The Choctaws will face the winner of the UT-Tyler vs UT-Dallas elimination game played late Saturday night.
Mississippi College Recap
UT-Tyler Recap
Photo Gallery
Game 5: Texas-Tyler 4, Texas-Dallas 3; UTD eliminated
CLINTON, Miss – The University of Texas at Tyler baseball team split a pair of games on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s title game of the 2009 American Southwest Conference Championship tournament at Mississippi College’s Frierson Field in Clinton.
The Patriots fell in their first game of the day, 15-4, to Mississippi, but were able to persevere and immediately return to the field and defeat UT Dallas, 4-3, in the day’s finale.
In game one versus Mississippi, the Choctaws jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with a two-run homer from Brannon Walls off of UT Tyler senior Blake Booher.
The Patriots cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning with an RBI-single from senior Paige Hodges that scored senior Kendall Fox.
Mississippi extended its lead to 3-1 in the third with a sacrifice fly from Bo Bell that scored Andy Smith.
However in the fourth, UT Tyler exploded offensively with a solo homerun form senior Jared Hood and a two-run homerun from senior Chad Daleiden to take a 4-3 lead.
Unfortunately for the Patriots, Mississippi experienced its own offensive explosion and reeled off 12 unanswered runs over the next four innings.
Booher went five innings on the mound for the Patriots and allowed six runs off of seven hits with three strikeouts and was credited with a loss for the first time this season.
In game two, the Patriots once again fell behind early as the Comets capitalized on two UT Tyler errors in the second inning and jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
However in the fourth, Hood hit his second homerun of the day to tie the game at two all.
In the bottom of the fourth, UT Dallas regained the lead with a homerun of its own from Chris Bigunet.
In the seventh inning, UT Tyler tied the game again with another homerun from Jared Hood. Hood finished the day by going 3-for-7 with three runs, four RBIs, three homeruns and a walk over the two game stretch.
The Patriots scored the winning run in the eighth inning with an RBI-single from Paige Hodges that scored Chad Daleiden.
Senior reliever Beau Ziegler wrapped up the win for UT Tyler by striking out three batters while giving up just one hit over the final 2.2 innings of the game.
On Sunday, the Patriots will take on Mississippi College at 1 p.m., for the 2009 ASC Baseball Championship and an automatic berth into the 2009 NCAA Division III Baseball tournament.
Should UT Tyler win the first game, both teams would return to the field approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of game one for a winner-takes-all game two.
