May 9, 2008
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - - UT Arlington's baseball team was hurt by three Stephen F. Austin homers and solid pitching by Lumberjacks left-handed starter Lance Luetge on Friday in a 7-2 loss at Jaycees Field in Nacogdoches.
Needing to win at least one game in the Southland Conference three-game series this weekend to help its chances for postseason play as the season winds down to the final two weekends, UTA gets another shot at SFA in a 2 p.m. game Saturday. The final game of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Mavericks (21-28, 12-13), who had six hits and no extra-base hits, took a two-run lead in the second inning on the strength of two errors, singles by Jeff Storms and Mitch Puttman and a squeeze bunt by Evan Raley. But the Mavericks managed just four more hits the rest of the way and only one of those wasn't an infield single. UTA couldn't bring home three runners in scoring position in the final five innings.
SFA (23-25, 10-14) scored one in the third off UTA starter Ryan Robinson (5-5) and tied it with a solo homer in the fourth by Justin Roland. The next inning, leadoff hitter Noel Trevino hit a homer to left to put the Mavericks down, 4-2.
From the fifth to the eighth as UTA was trying to make its comeback, the offense couldn't come alive. A strikeout in the eighth ended one UTA scoring threat and showed how efficient Luetge (6-6) was, getting his sixth of a season-high seven strikeouts and doing it with just 99 pitches to that point. In the bottom of that inning, the big blow came when Kevin Crabtree hit a two-run homer to left to put the Mavericks down, 6-2. SFA added an insurance run to make it 7-2.
The loss is UTA's eighth in its past 10 games.
The Mavericks will need to turn their fortunes around against a hot Lumberjacks team. SFA has won nine consecutive games, the longest win streak in the Southland Conference this season.
