Box Score

By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com

WACO, Texas - Christian Hollie and Colton Turner had three RBI apiece and Kadon Simmons pitched 5.1 strong innings in his second start of the season as the UT Arlington Mavericks pounced on the Baylor Bears and never let up in a 9-2 win on Wednesday night at Baylor Ballpark.

The Mavs (3-2) scored in the first inning for the fourth time in its first five games of the year and never surrendered the lead, blowing things open with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to pick up their first win over the Bears (1-3) in Waco since 2005.

Simmons was stellar in his second outing as a Maverick. The junior righty earned his first win in a UTA uniform and struck out six with just a single walk, allowing just a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth.

But he got plenty of help from his offense as the top five hitters in the UTA lineup combined for 11 of the Mavs' 12 hits on the night. Hollie finished the evening 3-for-5 with three RBI, while Matt McLean scored three times and reached base in four of his five plate appearances out of the leadoff spot.

Turner added a pair of hits and three RBI, while Quintin Rohrbaugh finished 2-for-4 on the night with a walk and a run scored.

It did not take long for the Mavs to get on the board as McLean singled to open the game and came in to score on a two-out RBI single to left field by Turner in the opening frame.

Rohrbaugh made a diving catch to end a 1-2-3 first for Simmons, then started a rally in the top of the second with a leadoff single. He came across home plate and made it 2-0 just three batters later on a sacrifice fly from Brady Cox.

Simmons made that early lead stand up with his work on the bump, fanning five hitters in his first four frames and retiring 14 of the first 15 Bears he faced. The UTA offense gave him more breathing room in the top of the third, connecting on five straight hits to open the inning and plate three more runs.

Hits from McLean and Caleb Koedyker got it started and Hollie followed that with his first RBI of the game on a single to left field. Turner then drove a fly ball over Levi Gilcrease's head in center field, and despite being thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple, still drove home both Koedyker and Hollie to push the lead to 5-0.

An inning later the Mavs really blew it open, sending nine men to the plate and pushing across four more runs. A throwing error and a wild pitch plated the first two scores, but it was Hollie who delivered the big blow of the inning when he one-hopped the wall in left-center for a two-run double to stretch the advantage to 9-0.

The Bears got back a pair of runs in the bottom half of the sixth on RBI hits from Gilcrease and Kameron Esthay, but Adam Meyer entered out of the Mavs pen and finished off the Bear rally without any further damage, closing the inning with a strikeout of Richard Cunningham with a pair of runners on.

From there Jacob Moreland and Daniel James did the rest, each pitching a perfect inning of relief as the Maverick pen retired the final 10 Bears of the game.

UTA will now head to Ruston, La., for a three-game series at Louisiana Tech beginning Friday at J.C. Love Field.