March 7, 2014
Final Stats
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ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington was unable to overcome a five-run deficit on Friday at Clay Gould Ballpark, falling 5-3 to Utah in the opening day of the UTA Hilton Invitational.
The Mavericks dropped to 3-9, having lost their last three, while Utah ended a three-game skid of its own to improve to 6-6. UTA continues action in the UTA Hilton Invitational on Saturday at 3 p.m. vs. Missouri State.
UTA went down by five runs for a second consecutive game, and just like Tuesday's 5-4 loss to Texas A&M, was unable to complete the comeback bid.
"I hate losing," UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. "We are finding ways to lose. We are doing just enough wrong things, not a ton of them, but enough things that we are losing. It is always a big inning."
Darien McLemore helped provide UTA's first run of the contest with a four-pitch walk to lead off the sixth. Matt Shortall knocked a triple to the center-field wall to score McLemore. Shortall came home on a Greg McCall single through the right side of the infield.
The rally picked up again in the seventh when Shortall collected his second RBI with a hit to shallow right to score Peter Cuomo.
The three runs were all that UTA could bring home. Shortall's ninth-inning, game-tying home run bid fell just a few feet short in cente and into the glove of Utah's outfielder.
"We're digging a hole and fighting to come back," Thomas said. "We are doing a decent job in coming back and stringing together a couple of at-bats. We can't continue to think that we can get down four to five every night."
The Utes punched through on UTA starter Jess Amedee in the third with a single up the middle. Utah opened the flood gates in the fifth to chase Amedee from the game. Amedee gave up back-to-back singles to open the frame before self-inflicted wounds equated to Ute runs.
Amedee (1-2) walked two consecutive with the bases loaded before giving way to Jacob Moreland. Utah added a run on a sacrifice fly to right and an error gave the Utes their fourth run of the inning and a 5-0 lead.
Amedee pitched 4.1 innings and struck out a season-high seven, including retiring the side in the second. The right-hander gave up eight hits, five runs (four earned) and walked three.
