March 27, 2012
Final Stats
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ARLINGTON, Texas - Preston Beck scored on a wild pitch as UT Arlington scored twice in the bottom of the 10th to beat TCU 4-3 and snap a four-game losing streak Tuesday night.
The Mavericks improved to 14-11 with the nonconference victory, while the Horned Frogs dropped to 12-10 before a season-high 1,036 fans at Clay Gould Ballpark.
UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said the late comeback reminded him of the 5-4 victory over Baylor earlier this season. The Mavericks scored three times in the ninth to beat the Bears back on March 13.
"If you just hang in there long enough, sometimes you get a chance," Thomas said. "They did a good job pitching us. We just scrapped a couple (across). We've needed a break a break for a while. The last four or five games we've been scuffling.
"We just hung in there. I thought our pitching did a great job. We threw two freshmen in (Zach Thompson) and (Chad Nack)."
UTA went into its final at-bat trailing 3-2 after TCU's Josh Elander homered in the top of the 10th to give the Horned Frogs the lead.
In what had been a nip-and-tuck ballgame that one run figured to hold up. But the Mavericks began their rally with Ryan Walker drawing a one-out walk. Beck doubled and Michael Guerra was intentionally walked to load the bases.
Preston Morrow's sinking line drive to left was caught, leaving UTA down to its final out. Pinch hitter Matt Shortall followed with a slow roller up the third-base line that Davy Wright bobbled for TCU's fifth error and Walker scored to tie it.
Beck came home with the winning run as TCU reliever Justin Scharf bounced one in the dirt.
Mavericks reliever Michael Morales picked up the win despite giving up the homer in the 10th. That was the only run allowed by Morales in 2.2 innings.
UTA returns to the diamond Friday for the start of a three-game Southland Conference series with Central Arkansas at Clay Gould Ballpark.
