May 22, 2009
Box Score
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The UT Arlington baseball team's season came to an end after Lamar staged a ninth-inning comeback to defeat the Mavericks 4-3 at the Southland Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Mavericks finish the season 30-26 overall, marking the program's 19th 30-win season and first since 2004, while the Cardinals advance to play unbeaten Texas State in a game scheduled for Friday evening.
The Mavericks took their first lead of the game in the eighth inning on a two-run double by Jay Pitschka to grab a 3-2 lead. Neither team scored until the sixth inning and UT Arlington was held without a run until Matt Otteman hit his ninth home run of the season with a solo blast in the seventh inning to make the score 2-1.
In the eighth, UT Arlington used two pinch hitters to put runners in scoring position for Pitschka. Senior Collin Garner reached base to lead off the inning on a throwing error by Lamar second baseman Brian Taylor. Pinch hitter Preston McCoy followed with a full-count double to right-center field putting runners at second and third base with nobody out.
Pitschka lined a double off the chalk on the left-field foul line to drive in Garner and McCoy, giving the Mavericks a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning.
After allowing the tying and go-ahead runs, Lamar relief pitcher Ricky Testa stepped up for the Cardinals recording two of the three outs in the eighth inning on strikeouts to give the Cardinals a chance in the top of the ninth inning.
Lamar followed with its third ninth-inning or extra-inning victory over the Mavericks this season as three straight batters tallied base hits before Jeremiah Sammy tied the game with a sacrifice fly and then Chris Dunkin delivered an RBI single through the left side to score Quentin Luquette to give Lamar the 4-3 advantage.
Testa went back to work in the bottom of the ninth as he struck out the Mavs' first two batters before Garner reached base on an infield single and later advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Testa recorded his fifth strikeout of the game -third of the inning - on a 2-2 pitch to third baseman Evan Raley to end the game.
Sophomore reliever Adam Boydston suffered the loss for the Mavericks as he pitched 0.1 innings while allowing one run and three base hits. Otteman started his second game on the mound this season as he pitched 6.0 innings with five strikeouts and allowed seven hits and two runs (one earned) in the no decision.
Otteman finished a record book season at the plate by tying the UT Arlington all-time single-season RBI record on his home run in the seventh inning. Otteman's 69 RBI tie him with Ryan Roberts who recorded 69 RBI in a 62-game schedule in 2003. Otteman accomplished the feat in only 56 games this season.
Otteman finished the season ranking in several UT Arlington all-time single-season top-10 record books, including batting average (.432, 2nd), RBI (69, tied for 1st), base hits (95, 2nd), triples (8, 2nd), total bases (153, 3rd), slugging percentage (.695, 5th) and on-base percentage (.478, 4th).
GAME/SEASON NOTES:
UT Arlington drops to 22-24 all-time in the Southland Conference Tournament... The Mavericks fall to 3-6 against Lamar in SLC Tournament games... Mavericks dropped their fourth straight game against Lamar, with the last three all coming with the final score 4-3... the Mavericks finish the season 8-10 in one-run games... Mavericks won 30 games for the 19th time in school history and for the first time since 2004... Mavericks 3-4-5-hole hitters Michael Choice, Matt Otteman and Andrew Kainer batted a combined .439 (25-for-57) with six doubles and 10 RBI against Lamar in five games this season... Choice, Otteman and Kainer combined batted .484 (15-for-31) with a double, two home runs and six RBI during the SLC Tournament... Only three batters in UTA history have batted over .400 in a single-season (Trey Hillman, .442 - 1985; Ryan Roberts, .422 - 2003; Jose Rubiera, .402 - 1991) and this season Otteman (.432), Kainer (.417) and Choice (.413) all batted above the .400 mark... Otteman came within two hits of tying the UTA single-season hits record (95 - Ryan Roberts 97 in 2003)... Choice finished the season with 93 hits, becoming only the third player in school history to tally over 90 hits and ranks third all-time in a single-season with 93 hits... Choice's 11 home runs rank tied for eighth in UTA single-season history... Choice's 64 runs scored rank third in UTA single-season history... Choice's 145 total bases rank fourth in UTA single-season history... Choice's .644 slugging percentage ranks eighth in UTA single-season history... Choice's .492 on-base percentage ranks third in UTA single-season history... Kainer's 85 base hits tie him for seventh place in UTA single-season history... Kainer finished with a single-season school record 23 doubles... Kainer's 11 hit by pitches ranks sixth in UTA single-season history... Kainer's .474 on-base percentage ranks fifth in UTA single-season history... Adam Boydston's 29 appearances are tied for fifth in UTA single-season history... Boydston's nine saves ranks third in UTA single-season history... Nathan Long's 104 strikeouts broke the UTA single-season record... Long's 60 career appearances ranks seventh in UTA career history... Long's 229 career strikeouts are the most by a UTA pitcher since 1973 and are the second most all-time... Long's 271.0 career innings pitched rank seventh in UTA history... Long's 37 career starts tie him for eighth all-time in UTA history... Boydston's nine career saves ranks him fourth in school history... Michael Choice's .396 career batting average ranks first in UTA history... Choice's 18 career home runs rank tied for 10th in UTA history... Choice's career .604 slugging percentage ranks third in UTA history... Entering his junior season in 2010, Choice will need the following statistical totals to break all-time UTA career records for base hits (needs 102), home runs (needs 14), RBI (needs 64), total bases (needs 163), slugging percentage (needs .102 more) and hit by pitches (needs 17)... Kainer's .373 career batting average ranks third in UTA history... Kainer's 16 career hit by pitches ranks eighth in UTA history... Otteman's 10 career triples ranks tied for ninth in UTA history... Jay Pitschka's 26 career hit by pitches ranks second in UTA history... As a team, UT Arlington entered several all-time single-season top-10 record books, including tied for ninth in home runs (39), fourth in batting average (.306), second in RBI (345), sixth in runs scored (370), fifth in base hits (605), tied for fifth in doubles (113), eighth in slugging percentage (.440), second in fielding percentage (.971), tied for fourth in saves (12) and the Maverick pitching staff broke the UT Arlington single-season strikeout record with 410.
