Box Score

By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com

TROY, Ala. - UT Arlington exploded for seven runs with two outs in the top of the fourth and evened up the series with an 18-5 win over Troy on Saturday at Riddle-Pace Field.

The Mavs (21-19, 7-10 SBC) put together their biggest offensive output of the season, with every hitter in the starting lineup recording at least one hit and eight finishing with multi-hit efforts. In fact, six hitters hit safely three times and UTA finished the day with a season-high 24 hits.

That mark is the most hits by a UTA team in a single game since the Mavs had 25 hits vs McNeese State on March 7, 2008.

"We needed that one today," coach Darin Thomas said. "We had been playing really tight lately and it was good to see us finally break out. This is a series we need, and to take it we will need the same effort tomorrow."

Two Mavs - Cody Farrell and Darien McLemore - finished a triple shy of the cycle, with Farrell finishing with a team-best 3 RBI. McLemore and Caleb Koedyker each hit solo home runs, giving the Mavs their first three-homer game of the season. Nine of the 24 UTA hits on the day went for extra bases.

Joel Kuhnel was the beneficiary of the run support, moving to 4-2 on the season with 6.0 strong innings. The big righty struck out four and looked in command for the majority of the afternoon in making his second straight start after a three-week layoff.

He handed the ball off to Austin Gardner who allowed two runs with a strikeout in tossing the final three innings to be credited with his first save of the year.

Meanwhile, the Trojans (23-17, 9-8 SBC) used six arms on the day with starter Houston Mabray taking his first loss of the season. He lasted just 2.1 innings before being lifted in favor of Cory Gill, who looked solid before the UTA offense got to him for five of its seven runs in the game-changing fourth frame.

UTA plated runs in four of the game's first five innings, including spotting itself a three-run lead in the opening frame. Each of the first three Mavs of the game hit safely as part of a 24-hit outburst from the UTA offense. Colton Turner, McLemore and Quintin Rohrbaugh all delivered RBI in the first inning, and Kuhnel allowed retired the first five hitters he faced before consecutive doubles in the second scored the first Trojan run.

The Mavs upped their lead to 5-1 in the third on RBI singles from Cox and Noah Vaughan, and had two outs in the fourth before the seven-run explosion. A single from Williams and a walk to Cox started the rally, one which was aided by three Troy errors. Turner and McLemore then delivered run-scoring hits, followed by an infield RBI single from Rohrbaugh.

Farrell and Josh Minjarez also added run scoring singles to close the scoring in an inning that saw 13 Mavericks come to the plate and give Kuhnel a 12-1 lead to work with.

Troy got an unearned run back in the bottom of the fourth, but McLemore got it right back in the top of the fifth when he launched his third homer of the season over the extra-large wall in right-center field fence to push the lead back to 13-2. The Mavs kept hitting in the sixth with consecutive doubles to start the inning from Minjarez and Matt McLean scoring a run before Cox's second RBI of the day increased the UTA advantage to 15-2.

After Troy got a run in the sixth, Farrell added two more for the Mavs in the seventh with a homer to left field. Koedyker added one more in the ninth, leading off the inning with a majestic blast to left-center field on the first pitch he saw from Robert Harris.

The Trojans would plate two in the bottom of the ninth before Gardner got ground outs from Tripp Calhoun and Brandon Lockridge to finish it off.

The Mavs will try to take the series on Sunday when sophomore Jake Wilcox gets the start. First pitch is scheduled for noon.