Box Score

By Ben Rikard | UTAMavs.com

BOONE, N.C. - The UT Arlington Mavericks gave up a two-run lead in the ninth, but responded with a five-run 10th to clinch the series against Appalachian State with an 8-3 win on Saturday at Smith Stadium.

The Mavs (27-24, 13-13 SBC) scored three in the fifth and held a 3-1 lead over the Mountaineers (15-35, 9-20 SBC) going into the ninth. But App State scored twice to force extra frames in their final at-bat of regulation before the Mavs' bats came to life in the top of the 10th for UTA's third extra-inning win of the season.

"App State has some really good young players and we knew it was going to be a battle this weekend," coach Darin Thomas said after the game. "Luckily we got the double-play ball in the ninth to force extras and then was able to bust it loose."

Darien McLemore drove in three runs on the day with a pair of hits, including a two-run double in the 10th that was the 200th hit of his career and broke the 3-3 tie. Noah Vaughan added an RBI triple in the inning, with RJ Williams adding an RBI single to cap a 2-for-5 game with a pair of RBI.

Jacob Moreland moved to 5-0 after picking up the win, striking out two in 4.0 innings of relief. He was in position to pick up his fifth save of the season before surrendering the lead in the ninth, but threw up a scoreless extra frame for the win. That came in relief of starter Joel Kuhnel who struck out six in 6.0 innings with just a single run allowed.

The loss fell on App State reliever Luke Watts who had thrown 4.1 hitless innings of relief before giving up a leadoff double, one of six on the night for the Mavs, to Brady Cox to open up the 10th.

App State's starter kept the Mavs off balance through the first four frames and got a 1-0 lead to work with after Conner Leonard connected on a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the second. However, after leaving five runners on base in the first four frames, the UTA offense got something going in the top of the fifth.

A leadoff double from Josh Minjarez was followed by a walk to Matt McLean and a ground-rule RBI double from RJ Williams to tie things up. Quintin Rohrbaugh then put UTA ahead 2-1 with a sac fly and Darien McLemore plated Williams one batter later with a hard RBI single to right field.

Kuhnel responded with a shutdown fifth and then worked around a two-out double from Matt Vernon in the sixth, getting Grayson Atwood for his sixth and final strikeout of the game to end the Mountaineer scoring threat.

UTA then turned to Moreland, who shut App State down in both the seventh and eighth before surrendering a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings. Singles from Atwood and Colin Schmid started the inning, with an infield single from Tanner Mann-Fix scoring the first run from third. One batter later Chandler Seagle lined an RBI single to left field to score Schmid and knot things up.

Moreland then had some work to do with the winning run in scoring position, but got pinch hitter Parker Henderson to ground to McLemore for a double play to keep things tied up.

Cox then started things off for the Mavs in the 10th with a rocket double to left-center, followed by a single from Quintin Rohrbaugh. That set up McLemore who doubled to left-center off of reliever Reed Howell to score both runners and then came home to score on Vaughan's triple.

UTA would add two more in the inning, giving Moreland a comfortable five-run cushion in the bottom fo the inning. The senior allowed one hit in the inning, but nothing else in securing the Mavs' fourth straight road series win.

The Mavs and Mountaineers will close out their weekend tilt on Sunday with sophomore Jake Wilcox scheduled to get the start for UTA. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. CT from Smith Stadium.