Final Stats

By Paul Watley | @WatP7

ARLINGTON, Texas - Joel Kuhnel was masterful in his fourth start of the season, but UT Arlington ultimately came up short in an extra-inning 2-1 loss to Georgia State on Sunday afternoon.

"First of all, I thought Joel was outstanding," UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. "That was one of the best pitched games we've had all year long. He was really good, but we didn't help him out offensively."

It was a quality performance for Kuhnel (1-1) who went 9.1 innings on the mound, allowing nine hits and two earned runs while fanning four. The sophomore right-handed pitcher held the Panther batters to .250 in the box with only two extra-base hits.

The Mavericks (12-14, 4-5 Sun Belt) left 11 on base compared to seven left on for the Panthers (17-12, 6-2 Sun Belt) in the game at Clay Gould Ballpark.

Matt McLean did his best to jump-start the UTA offense as the junior outfielder reached base three times, going 2-of-4 with one walk. Darien McLemore also chipped in with his 2-of-5 outing.

After the Panthers pushed one across in the first, the Mavericks looked to even the score in the third with the bases loaded and one out. A pair of singles put two runners on with one out before Travis Sibley was hit by a pitch to loaded the bases with UTA looking to bring the tying run across. However, the Mavs grounded into a double play to end the inning without bringing any runs across.

UTA brought in the tying run in the bottom of the fifth with a Sibley single to center field that brought in Christian Hollie. Sibley's RBI single was set up by a McLean single that put runners on second and third with one out.

The game-winning run was set up by a lead-off double for the Panthers. The Mavericks nearly escaped the jam as reliever Jacob Moreland entered the game and recorded a strike out, but a wild pitch by Zach Hobbs resulted in the go-ahead run for the GSU.

"We did play good defense all weekend," Thomas added. "We didn't make an error all weekend. We pitched it really well, but we've got to outscore somebody at some point. We're going to keep trying and keep getting after it, but one of the biggest things is that you can't control your hitting all the time, but you can control base running and how you execute and we're just not doing a very good job of that."

UTA registered its one run off of eight hits with an error-free game. GSU brought in its two runs from nine hits while committing a pair of errors.

The Mavericks will return to action on Tuesday as they play host to No. 2 TCU. The matchup with the Horned Frogs is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Clay Gould Ballpark.