April 2, 2004
Box Score
ARLINGTON, Texas - The University of Texas at Arlington took advantage of timely hitting and three home runs to defeat Southeastern Louisiana 8-5 Friday evening at Alumni Field.
For the eighth straight game, the Mavericks struck in the first inning as Kasey Baker started the game with a home run to left center field. With one out, Hunter Pence doubled to the right center field gap and moved to third on a failed pickoff attempt. Paul Bruder drove in Pence with a sacrifice fly to center field. Ryan Nelson followed with a walk and Aaron Batlle singled to center field. Brett Lewis plated the third run with a run-producing single to center field.
The Lions (7-17, 2-5) got a pair of runs back in the third inning as Russell Taylor and Jimmy Bertleson hit back-to-back solo shots to left field.
UTA (18-11, 5-2) built a cushion in the seventh inning as after Pence reached on a fielder's choice, Bruder tripled to the right center field gap and came in to score on a Nelson single up the middle. Batlle added to the lead with a two-run shot over the right field wall to score Nelson ahead of him.
SLU got a pair of runs back in the home half of the seventh inning as Brady Sledge walked and moved to second on a passed ball and went to third on a throwing error on the play. Taylor followed with a base on balls and moved to third on Betleson's single up the middle scoring Sledge. Anthony Garibaldi plated the second run with a ground-rule double down the left field line.
UTA got a run back in the ninth inning as Nelson hit his fifth home run of the season over the left center field wall for a solo shot.
SLU tried to put a rally together in the ninth inning off of closer Mike Snapp, but were only able to come away with one run after a walk and a double down the left field line by Taylor plated the run. Snapp was able to stop the rally there by getting the next hitter to groundout to second and striking the next guy out looking.
Batlle led the offense with three hits, while Baker, Pence and Nelson each collected two hits. Bruder, Nelson and Batlle each drove in two. Taylor, Bertleson and Randy Roth each had two hits for SLU.
Michael Gardner improved to 7-0 by allowing four earned runs on six hits in 6.2 innings of work. Rodney Story (1-5) took the loss by allowing three runs on four hits in one inning of work. Jeremy Mizell entered the game in the second for SLU and threw 139 pitches, allowing five runs on 10 hits. Snapp earned his fifth save of the season by giving up one run on two hits in 2.1 innings of work.
The Mavericks and Lions will play game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at Alumni Field. UTA will send junior right-hander Jake Baxter (3-2, 4.24 ERA) to the hill, while SLU will counter with freshman right-hander Bernard Robert (1-0, 4.34 ERA).
