April 3, 2016 Box Score
By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com
ATLANTA, Ga. - UT Arlington could not hold on to a 4-0 lead and a sacrifice fly from Joey Roach in the bottom of the eighth scored the winning run as Georgia State salvaged the third game of a weekend series with an 8-7 win on Sunday afternoon at the GSU Baseball Complex.
The Mavericks (16-13, 4-5 SBC) started the day with four runs in the first inning, but were held without a hit until the seventh, despite drawing a season-high 10 walks from the GSU (14-14, 3-6 SBC) pitching staff. GSU scratched across a run apiece in both the second and third frames before putting up four of their own in the bottom of the sixth.
Twice the Mavs rallied to tie things up, but the Panthers answered each time, eventually going up 8-7 in the eighth before winning pitcher Bryce Conley punched out the side in the ninth to close it out and earn his fifth win of the season.
Brady Cox led the UTA offense for the second straight game, finishing 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI. Leadoff man Matt McLean reached base three times in five plate appearances, while Darien McLemore and Christian Hollie each had a pair of RBI. Four Mavs drew at least free passes, including three by freshman Noah Vaughan.
On the mound, starter Brad Vassar held the Panthers to just two runs in his first five frames before GSU got to him for all four in the sixth, including a go-ahead three-run homer from Jaylen Woullard. Daniel James took the loss for UTA, allowing a run on three hits in 2.0 innings of work.
The Mavs sent eight hitters to the plate in the top of the first, striking for four quick runs against GSU starter Bryan White. Brady Cox delivered the first run-scoring blow with an RBI double, followed by an RBI groundout from Darien McLemore and a run-scoring single from Christian Hollie.
Meanwhile, Vassar retired his first four hitters faced before Georgia State managed to put something on the board in the bottom of the second on a sacrifice fly from Jaylen Woullard. The Panthers got one more back an inning later on an RBI single from Jarrett Hood and then exploded for four more in the bottom of the sixth.
Darius Sewell cut the lead to 4-3 in the sixth with an RBI single, but the big swing came from Woullard who crushed a three-run home run - his first of the year - to right field with one out to give GSU the lead for the first time on the day at 6-4.
In the meantime, the Mavs were held without a hit after the four-run first until the top of the seventh when Cox dumped an RBI single to left field after consecutive walks by reliever Devin Vainer to McLean and RJ Williams. Two batters later, with the bases loaded, McLemore drew the 10th walk of the day for the Mavs, knotting the game up at 6-6.
But the tie game was quickly negated a half inning later as the Panthers responded with three straight singles to open up the bottom of the seventh, re-taking a 7-6 lead on an RBI hit from Jack Thompson. James proceeded to retire the next three GSU hitters he faced and Josh Minjarez re-tied the game at 7-7 in the top of the eighth, scoring Colton Turner who had led off the inning with a pinch-hit double.
GSU then took advantage of a leadoff walk in their half of the eighth to Justin Jones, moving him up on a grounder and a bloop single to shallow right before Roach brought him home with a sac fly to deep left field for the eventual winning run.
UTA will next close out its season series with TCU on Wednesday when it heads to Fort Worth to take on the Horned Frogs. The game vs the nationally-ranked Frogs will be aired on FSSW+.
