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By Cassie Logan | @c4ssielogan

ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington bats came alive to take Game 2, 9-4 and even the Sun Belt series against Texas State Friday night at Clay Gould Ballpark.

UTA (28-25, 15-14 SBC) more than tripled their offensive production from Thursday night, rounding up 16 hits to Texas State's (29-26, 15-14) nine. Five Mavs had multi-hit games, including a team-best three hits from Brady Cox and Josh Minjarez.

The win snapped a four-game skid against the Bobcats for UTA and positions them for a series win on Senior Day on Saturday. UTA now needs just one win to reach 30 for the season for the fifth time in nine years.

"Joel [Kuhnel] gave us a great start and Dylan [Schneider] did a great job in relief for us, and that's a good offensive club," Thomas said. "We finally took advantage of some opportunities that they gave us and extended the lead at the end."

Cox, who had the Mavericks' lone multi-hit game on Thursday, continued to swing a hot bat and went 3-for-5 with a run an RBI. RJ Williams was 1-for-3 with two runs and three RBI. Darien McLemore and Colton Turner each drove in two runs apiece.

Kuhnel (6-3) threw seven innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with a pair of strikeouts to earn the win. Meanwhile, Schneider threw two scoreless frames with a career-best five strikeouts just a night after tossing a scoreless inning on Thursday to earn his first career save.

Williams drew a walk and Cox singled to get something brewing for UTA in the opening frame. Williams crossed the plate on a Quintin Rohrbaugh single up the middle and Turner drove in the Mavs' second run in Cox on a screaming double lined to the left field wall.

The Mavs got another run home when McLemore reached on his second triple of the season to open the third inning and Turner picked up his second RBI of the night on a groundout.

The Bobcats scratched the scoreboard with a run in the top of the fourth on an RBI single from Mickey Scott before UTA struck again in the bottom half of the frame.

Minjarez and Matt McLean connected on back-to-back singles before Williams doubled down the left field line to send both runners around.

Bobcat starter Jeremy Hallonquist was replaced by freshman Anthony Pagano after three frames as he allowed five earned runs on nine hits, two walks and two strikeouts. Hallonquist evened his record to 5-5 with the loss.

Pagano went on to retire his first nine batters, including three strikeouts, before back-to-back hits from Cox and Rohrbaugh, and a McLemore strikeout sent Texas State to the pen.

The Bobcats built on their one-run production to score in three consecutive innings, cutting into UTA's lead 5-4. A wild pitch and RBI single tacked on two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth brought the Bobcats within one.

UTA cushioned its lead comfortably in the bottom of the eighth with a four-run rally that was grounded on a bases loaded, no out situation.

Williams walked in the first run and Cox's sixth hit of the series plated another. McLemore closed out the Mavericks' scoring with an RBI double off the center field wall off of reliever Quinn Atwood.

Game three to decide the series will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Clay Gould Ballpark. The Mavericks will honor their five seniors at 1:45 p.m.

"The first game I played here my freshman year to now, I've always tried to leave it all on the field and it'll definitely be a different feeling," McLemore said. "But first and foremost, we have to win the series."