April 2, 2016 By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com
ATLANTA, Ga. - The UT Arlington Mavericks broke out the bats on Saturday, exploding for 27 total runs in a doubleheader sweep of Georgia State at the GSU Baseball Complex, clinching the weekend series by erasing a 10-run deficit in the nightcap.
UTA (16-12, 4-4 SBC) rode a five-run second inning to a 9-5 win in the doubleheader opener, but found itself down 11-1 after just two frames and down to its final strike in the ninth before forcing extra innings and winning in the 10th.
"It was a very long day with the weather, but it ended up being a good day," UT Arlington coach Darin Thomas said. "It was an offensive day with the wind blowing out, which is not what we have been playing in, typically. We just hung in there all day. That's the second 10-run deficit I've been a part of here and I'm awfully proud of the guys for competing the entire time."
The Mavs will go for the sweep of the Panthers (13-14, 2-6 SBC) in the series finale on Sunday in Atlanta.
Game 1
UT Arlington 9, Georgia State 5 (Box Score)
Christian Hollie had three hits and the Mavs rode a five-run second inning to a 9-5 win in the opener of the doubleheader.
Kadon Simmons was not as sharp as he in previous outings, but the junior righty still managed to strike out five and earn his league-leading sixth win of the season with 6.2 innings of work.
UTA outhit the Panthers 13-12, getting three doubles on the day and multi-hit games from Hollie, Colton Turner, Darien McLemore and Josh Minjarez. Jacob Moreland made his 75thcareer appearance, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings with four punchouts.
GSU starter Wayne Wages fell to 1-3 on the season with the loss, allowing eight runs on 10 hits in just 4.2 innings of work.
The Mavs went quietly in the first, but put up five runs in the top of the second to give Simmons room to work with. The first six UTA hitters of the inning hit safely, with Darien McLemore delivering the first run-scoring hit of the inning with a two-run single that scored both Colton Turner and Christian Hollie. Two batters later Josh Minjarez tugged a single to left to score McLemore before RJ Williams and Brady Cox added sacrifice flies.
Ryan Blanton got one back for the Panthers with a leadoff homer in the home half of the inning, but the Mavs answered back in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly from Noah Vaughan to score Turner and push the lead back to 6-1.
Simmons stranded two in the bottom of the third after a strikeout of Luke Leonard and got another run of support in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Turner. The Panthers finally got back on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning with James Clements and Joey Roach each picking up RBI, trimming the UTA lead to 7-3.
But UTA pushed across a run for the fourth consecutive inning with a two-out rally in the fifth, getting back-to-back doubles from Minjarez and Matt McLean to up the lead back to 8-3 and push Wages from the game.
Will Kilgore delivered the second homer of the day for GSU in the bottom of the second, a two-run shot that cut the lead back to 8-5. UTA added a run in the top of the seventh and GSU began to mount a rally against reliever Jacob Moreland in the home half of the eighth. Singles from Justin Jones and Clements put a pair on for the middle of the Panther order, but Moreland dialed up strikeouts of both Roach and Jarrett Hood to end the inning before setting them down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Game 2
UT Arlington 18, Georgia State 16 - 10 innings (Box Score)
The Mavericks trailed 11-1 after just two innings and 14-6 after four, but followed that up with 12 unanswered runs to pull out an 18-16 comeback win in 10 innings over the Panthers.
Rohrbaugh and Jerame Littell provided the heroics with Rohrbaugh tying the game with a two-run single with two outs in the ninth and Littell smashing a three-run double with two outs in the top of the 10th to put the Mavs in front for good.
"Once you get it to within about five or six runs you know you are just a couple of baserunners away," Thomas said. "And none of the hits we got were cheap. We squared it up pretty good. It was a total team effort."
UTA got five RBI apiece from both Cox and Rohrbaugh and totaled a season-high 22 hits, a mark just four shy of the program record. Six Mavs finished with multi-hit games with Cox leading the way with a 5-for-6 game that included a pair of doubles.
It was the first time UTA had two players with 5+ RBI in the same game since March 11, 2006 when Kyle Thomason had six RBI and Robby Winn picked up five RBI in a win over Northwestern State.
Rohrbaugh picked up three hits in six at-bats, including his first homer as a Mav and the game-tying two-run single with two outs in the top of the ninth. McLemore added four hits, McLean had three and both Williams and Minjarez had two apiece.
"One thing that goes overlooked is that we didn't get it done in the ninth, but got it done in the tenth," Thomas said. "Sometimes you get disappointed and give it right back to them, but that didn't happen with us. We basically had two comebacks tonight."
But it was the UTA bullpen combo of Logan Austin and Jacob Moreland who gave the Mavs the chance to mount the comeback as the pair combined to shut the Panthers down for five straight innings after they had exploded for 14 runs in the first four innings.
Austin, making just his fourth appearance of his career, struck out two and allowed just two hits in 2.2 shutout innings before handing things over to the senior Moreland who moved to 2-0 with the win. The right-hander, pitching for the second time on the day, allowed just two runs in 3.1 innings of relief.
Meanwhile, the Panthers used a bevy of arms of their own, throwing seven pitchers to the mound. Starter Marc-Andre Habeck allowed seven runs in just 5.0 innings while Rhett Harper took the loss after allowing four runs in just an inning of work.
An RBI groundout from Cox gave UTA an early lead in the top of the first; however, the Panthers immediately responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the opening inning.
One inning later Georgia State blew it open, scoring eight times - seven times with two outs - in an inning highlighted by back-to-back home runs by Ryan Blanton and Brandon Gonzalez.
After falling behind 11-1 after just two innings, the Mavs began to chip away, cutting the lead in half with a five spot in the third. Cox delivered the first blow with a two-run double, and two batters later, Rohrbaugh launched his first homer of the year over the left-center field fence to score three and cut the GSU lead to 11-6.
The Panthers added three more runs with solo home runs from Hood, Blanton and Jack Thompson, but that would be the end of the GSU offense for the night until the tenth.
Hollie got one back with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth and Austin entered from the UTA pen to hold the Panthers scoreless for the next 2.2 innings.
The Mavs finally struck again for four in the top of the seventh, getting an an RBI single from Minjarez, followed by a RBI from both McLean and Williams. Cox then capped the scoring by ringing his second two-run double of the game off the left-center field wall to cut the lead to 14-11.
Moreland held GSU down in the eighth and set things up for the ninth. UTA put the first two runners on and cut the lead to 14-12 on a two-out RBI single from Cox. Then, after a walk to Turner, Rohrbaugh laced a single to left to score a pair and tie things up. The Mavs had a chance to go in front after McLemore loaded the bases with a walk, but GSU's Jaylen Woullard made a leaping catch in left to rob Hollie of extra bases and multiple RBI.
The Panthers had their chance to win in walk-off fashion in the ninth, getting a leadoff single and advancing him as far as third base before Moreland got all-conference hitter Joey Roach to ground out to second base to send the game to extra innings.
UTA then took the lead for good in the 10th when Littell took advantage of his only at-bat of the night, clearing the bases with two outs in the inning with a three-run double to put UTA up 17-14. McLemore added an RBI single two batters later, giving Moreland a four-run cushion in the bottom half of the inning. GSU managed to get a pair of runs home, but nothing more as the Mavs finished things off with a groundout from Justin Jones.
