CONWAY, S.C. – The UTA baseball team scored eight runs over the last three innings to win its first game of the 2019 Sun Belt Baseball Championship over the No. 5-seed Coastal Carolina, 9-8, in 10-innings on Wednesday night at Springs Brooks Stadium.

The Mavs improve to 32-24 with the win and remain in the winner's bracket heading into the third day of tourney action on Thursday (May 23). UTA will face No. 10 ULM, who defeated top-seeded Texas State, 8-0. First pitch for the matchup is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.

For UTA at the plate, Connor Aube (3-for-5, HR, RBI, 2 runs, SB) led the way with a game-high three hits, while Justin Marino (1-for-1, 2 RBIs) had a team-high two RBIs.
UTA reliever Wyatt Divis (5-0) stayed unbeaten on the season, throwing 1.2-scoreless innings out of the bullpen in the extra-inning win. Starting pitcher Drew Gooch had a solid start, allowing three runs, only one of which was earned, on seven hits, a walk, a hit batter and five strikeouts in 7.0-plus innings on the bump.

Coastal got on the board first in the top of the sixth. A single up the middle and an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt were followed by a single to right field to plate a run and put the visitors up 1-0. After a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout, CCU got a two-out, two-run single to center field to push their lead to 3-0 midway through the sixth.

The Mavs quickly answered with a solo home run from Aube in the bottom half of the inning to cut the Coastal lead to two at 3-1.

The Mavericks pushed across five runs in the bottom half of the eighth inning on three-straight singles, an intentional walk, a Coastal Carolina fielding error and a two-run pinch-hit RBI single from Marino to take its first lead of the game at 6-3.

Coastal fought back with a five-spot of its own in the top of the ninth to give the tournament hosts an 8-6 edge going into the bottom of the ninth.

A hit-by-pitch, another fielding error and a single up the middle loaded the bases for the Mavs. A wild pitch allowed one run to score from third and cut the Coastal led down to just one at 8-7. Following an intentional walk and a fly ball out to left field, another wild pitch tied the game up at 8-8.

Tied at 8-8 after nine innings of play, the Chants put the go-ahead run on base in the top of the 10th on a single. A ground out and a pop out in foul territory ended the top half of the inning.

The Mavs led off the bottom of the 10th with a bunt single from Aaron Funk. After a sacrifice bunt from Connor Aube moved Funk over to second, Zac Cook lined an RBI single through the right side of the infield to score the game-winning run and give UTA the 9-8 extra-inning win.

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