March 22, 2009
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington baseball team finished its conference series sweep over Northwestern State with a 16-0, seven-inning run-rule victory at Clay Gould Ballpark in Arlington. The Mavericks had 17 base hits off six Demon pitchers to tally their first run-rule win and to record their fourth shutout of the season.
UT Arlington (12-10, 5-4) has won six straight games and seven of its last eight overall. Northwestern State has lost four straight games and drops to 10-9 overall and to 4-4 in the Southland Conference.
"We played really well, we had an eight-game home stand and went 7-1 with wins over UTSA, Minnesota and Northwestern State," head coach Darin Thomas said.
The Mavericks put the game out of reach with three runs in the first inning and nine runs in the second inning. UT Arlington's first inning was sparked by four straight singles by Tim Steggall, Michael Choice, Matt Otteman and Andrew Kainer.
Sophomore Rett Varner (2-1) picked up his second win of the season pitching five shutout innings while allowing eight hits and one walk with three strikeouts. Senior Matt Otteman and senior Ryan Martin each threw an inning in relief to combine with Varner for the shutout.
The Mavs' second inning explosion consisted of six base hits - two of which were for extra bases - three walks and a hit-by-pitch. Ryan Davis started the inning with a double down the left-field line and then scored on Steggall's second hit in as many innings. Kainer and Preston McCoy then drew back-to-back bases-loaded walks before Chad Comer and Davis scored runs on consecutive singles. Second baseman Jay Pitschka finished the Mavs' rally with a run-scoring triple into the right-field corner to score Davis for the ninth run of the inning.
Overall, nine Mavericks recorded at least one base hit, nine players scored at least one run and 10 Mavs posted at least one RBI.
The six UT Arlington hitters who posted a multi-hit game included Pitschka, (2-for-4, 2 RBI), Steggall (2-for-4, 2 runs), Otteman (2-for-5, 2 runs), Kainer (3-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI), Davis (3-for-3, 3 runs) and Evan Raley (2-for-3, 3 RBI).
UT Arlington will be back in action on Tuesday, March 24, traveling to play No. 3 Texas A&M for a midweek game starting at 6:35 p.m. at C.E. "Pat" Olsen Field in College Station.
GAME NOTES:
UT Arlington improves to 38-38 all-time against Northwestern State, including an 18-18 all-time record in Arlington... It is the Mavericks first series sweep over Northwestern State since 2006 (in Arlington) and their fourth series sweep all-time over the Demons (1989, 1992, 2006, 2009)... UTA is just one win shy of winning its program's 1,100th all-time victory... In 41 years, UTA has an all-time record of 1,099-1,058-1 (.509)... The Mavericks are now 12-10 overall, marking the first time since 2005 (15-13) they have been two games over .500 after 10 games into the season... UTA has won 12 games (22 games) quicker than any Maverick team since 2004 when UTA started the season 12-8... During the series, UT Arlington batted .389 with a team ERA of 0.72 and did not commit a fielding error... Six UTA players had a batting average over .400 in the series, led by senior third baseman Evan Raley who went 5-for-9 (.556) with five RBI... UTA marked its fourth shutout of the season on Sunday and second shutout on the weekend... UTA also shutout Siena (13-0, Feb. 22), UT Pan American (4-0, Feb. 28) and Northwestern State (5-0, Mar. 20) on Friday... Matt Otteman went 2-for-5 while extending his hit streak to 22 games... Former Maverick Clay Gould holds the school's all-time hit streak record at 26 games (1993)... Senior Andrew Kainer currently has an 11-game hit streak and senior Ryan Davis has a seven-game hit streak... After posting a 5-0 record this past week, UTA becomes a National Team of the Week candidate after defeating No. 25 Minnesota twice and sweeping Northwestern State in a three-game series... During the week, UTA batted .388 and tallied a 1.88 team ERA and a .994 fielding percentage (1 error in five games)... Also this past week, sophomore Adam Boydston recorded three saves in three appearances... UTA has now won three of its last four conference series at home dating back to last season... UTA closed the 2008 conference season with a three-game sweep over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Clay Gould Ballpark, and this season won two-of-three games from UTSA (Mar. 14-15) and swept Northwestern State this weekend.
