Feb. 26, 2004

Box Score

ARLINGTON, Texas - Sophomore right hander Michael Gardner had a career day on the mound as he struck out 14 Dallas Baptist hitters to improve to 2-0 on the season as Texas-Arlington defeated the Patriots 4-3 in the first game of a three-game series at Clay Gould Ballpark on Thursday evening.

Paul Bruder supplied the game winning run as he deposited his second home run of the season over the left field wall to lead off the eighth inning.

DBU (7-4) got on the board in the first inning as Ben Zobrist started the game with a walk and Cody Montgomery's attempted sacrifice bunt turned into a single. With one out, both runners moved up via stolen bases and Drew Holder plated both runners.

UTA (4-4) tied the game up in the third inning as Aaron Batlle and Hunter Pence connected on back-to-back one out singles to center field. With two outs, Ryan Nelson doubled to right center field to score the runners.

The Mavericks took the lead for good in the fourth inning as Carey Avants hit a one out single to right center and was sacrificed over by Brett Lewis. Kasey Baker delivered the runner with a single through the left side.

DBU pushed a run across in the ninth as Ryan Olivo started the inning with a triple to right field and came into score on a groundout.

Batlle led the offense with three hits, while Pence, Bruder and Avants each collected two. Holder led DBU with two hits and a pair of RBIs.

Gardner went eight strong innings allowing three earned runs on five hits after throwing 127 pitches, 86 for strikes. Lance Broadway (2-1) took the loss after allowing three runs on 12 hits in 6.1 innings of work. Mark Lowe earned his first save of the season after striking out one in his only inning of work.

The Mavericks and Patriots will play game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.