May 17, 2008
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - - UT Arlington's baseball team is back on the winning side of things, and the Mavericks got there at just the right time.
Four days from the opening round of the 2008 Southland Conference Tournament, the Mavericks built some momentum Saturday on Senior Day by downing the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders, 7-5, in an SLC game at Clay Gould Ballpark. The victory earns UTA (26-29, 16-14) the No. 6 seed in the postseason tournament, completes the series sweep against the Islanders (23-31, 14-15-1) and officially puts a disappointing 2007 in the rearview mirror.
After winning just four conference games last year, UTA first-year coach Darin Thomas and 22 new players reversed it with a winning record in conference and a four-game win streak to end the regular season. UTA has won five of its past seven. The Mavericks honored five seniors on Saturday - Danny Slinkman, David McLeod, Brock Wilson, Eamonn Donovan and Jeffrey Nollen.
McLeod, UTA's leading hitter, went 3-for-4.
"These guys have a lot to be proud of," Thomas said. "We doubled our win total, won 16 conference games and finished sixth after being picked to finish last. And these guys were outstanding all year long in the classroom. No matter what happens at the conference tournament - and we're going out there with every intention of winning - they can really be proud of what they've accomplished."
UTA took control in Game 3 of the series by knocking out Islanders starter Justin Grota (1-2) in the third inning and staking its own starting pitcher, junior Nathan Long, to a 4-1 lead. In that inning, UTA had two singles, two walks and a double by Michael Choice.
The Mavericks extended their lead in the fifth, getting a leadoff walk by Wilson, single by McLeod and walk by Choice to load the bases. Slinkman followed with a shot through the right side to make it 7-3.
With a four-run cushion and the tournament just around the corner, Thomas elected to give Long the rest of the day off. Long (5-4) went five innings, allowed eight hits, three runs and two earned runs. He struck out four and earned the victory. Matt Otteman relieved him to start the sixth.
The Islanders scored two in the seventh to cut the deficit to two runs, but Otteman (1) retired the Islanders in order in the eighth and allowed just one base runner in the ninth to earn his first save.
