March 20, 2013
Final Stats
ARLINGTON, Texas - No. 18 Baylor capitalized on its opportunities on the way to defeating UT Arlington 5-2 at Allan Saxe Field Wednesday evening.
The Lady Bears (25-5) used timely hitting to open up the game with three runs in the first three innings. The Mavericks (15-12) cut the lead in half in the sixth inning by putting up two runs, but could not manage to bring the game any closer. The loss was the second of the season against Baylor. The Mavs lost 3-0 to the Lady Bears on Feb. 22 at the Texas Shootout.
"Baylor is a good team, when you play a good team you can't make mistakes and expect to come on top," UT Arlington coach Kristie Fox said. "We didn't play our best game but we were right in there. We can't give away errors and put runners on base."
The Lady Bears opened up scoring in the top of the first on a throwing error on a steal attempt to third. Rebecca Stokes' throw went past the third basemen allowing the runner to score. Baylor added to its lead in the third inning with a pair of runs. Linsey Hays sent a two-out pitch to short left field, bouncing just off of the glove of shortstop Nina Villanueva allowing two to score.
Jolene Schaefer helped end the Baylor threat in the fourth inning with a diving catch on a short fly ball to center field.
Following a Baylor run in the top of the fifth, the Mavericks threatened with runners on the corners and no outs in the bottom half of the inning. Baylor's Heather Stearns would strike out two consecutive Mavericks and Kallan Thompson popped out to the shortstop to end the inning.
"We had a couple of opportunities to get runs on the board early but we didn't," Fox said. "We have to figure it out earlier to be successful."
Meagan Michele hit a double in the sixth inning to put UTA on the board. She sent the ball off the bottom of the left field wall to score Taylor Zink. Rachel Forshaw would bring Michele home on a two-out single up the middle to cut the Lady Bears lead to 4-2.
Baylor responded to the threat with a one-out homerun in the seventh. Kaitlyn Thumann sent the 1-1 pitch over the right-center field wall to extend the lead to three runs.
The Mavericks face Seattle U to begin Western Athletic Conference play this Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. The series finishes on Saturday at 1 p.m. in UTA's Alumni Game.
