May 6, 2012
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington bullpen allowed no earned runs over the final 6.2 innings to beat Sam Houston State, 6-3, Sunday afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark.
Chase Weaver helped settle the game down, going 4.0 innings and allowing just a pair of unearned runs in the seventh. Though the southpaw did not factor in the decision, he struck out four and gave up two hits.
"Chase was huge in relief for us today," UTA coach Darin Thomas said. "The bullpen was the difference for us in our two wins. Today they had a lot of lefties in the lineup and Chase did a good job of minimizing them a little bit."
Michael Morales and Adam Boydston each worked scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth, respectively. Boydston earned his fifth save of the season by working a perfect ninth.
John Beck (1-1) earned the win in relief, working 0.2 innings and getting a key strikeout of Greg Olson with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh. The appearance marked Beck's first since early March after he missed eight weeks with an injury.
With Beck coming back and Collin Reynolds making a strong return on Friday after missing a week, Thomas thinks his team's pitching depth is one of the biggest strength in the final weeks of the regular season.
For UTA, the win marks two in a row after losing five consecutive leading into Saturday. Thomas said the team should be riding some momentum after the weekend.
"Everyone goes through slumps but we have shown all year that we are capable of playing with anyone," Thomas said. "This is the best pitching staff we've seen in a while and to take two out of three against them says we're playing good ball right now."
Preston Morrow drove home a pair of runs to help the Mavericks (29-20, 16-11) take two out of three against Southland Conference-leading Sam Houston State. The game marked the first time all season the Bearkats (32-15, 20-7) lost a conference series.
Morrow drove home the Mavs' first run when his double to left field plated Jordan Vaughn. The left fielder added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to drive home Ryan Walker.
Greg McCall broke a 3-3 tie by scoring on a two-out wild pitch in the seventh and the Mavericks extended the lead with two runs in the eighth.
The Mavericks added insurance runs in the eighth on a Jake Pinchback RBI single and Walker's RBI walk.
UT Arlington errors enabled Sam Houston State to score all three runs.
The Mavericks return to action Friday when they travel to play McNeese State in the penultimate Southland Conference series this season.
