NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The UT Arlington baseball team (5-2) won both of their games on a Sunday doubleheader at the SFA Tournament, defeating SIU-Edwardsville 3-2 before beating host SFA 10-4.
The Mavericks finished the day with 18 hits as their bats came alive.
Andrew Keefer,
Andrew Miller,
Josh Minjarez (2) and
Zac Cook each came away with a home run as the Mavericks finished with five homers on the day.
UTA vs SIUE RECAP
David Moffat earned the start on the mound. Moffat lasted 7.2 innings and gave up two runs off four hits.
Cesar Gomez pitched the final 1.1 innings, giving up two hits but not allowing a run as he picked up his first win of the season.
The Mavericks finished with five hits, including two home runs coming off the bats of
Andrew Keefer and
Andrew Miller. Keefer finished with two RBI, including the go-ahead run.
Following a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first, the Mavericks got right to work on offense to take the lead. Keefer hit his first home run of the season before Miller followed up with the next at-bat to hit his second of the year and put the Mavs up 2-0.
Moffat was rolling through the first five innings, allowing just one baserunner and putting the Cougars down in order each inning. SIUE threatened to start the sixth inning, but three straight outs from Moffat kept the runner stranded at third and ended the scoring threat.
The Cougars used a two-hit inning in the 8
th to cut into the UTA lead. A double to right-center drove in the baserunner from first base to make the score 2-1. Gomez replaced Moffat with a runner on first, but another single up the middle drove in another run to tie the game at two.
UTA wasted no time regaining their lead.
Anthony Dominguez leadoff the bottom of the 8
th with a double.
Tyler Rice pinch ran for Dominguez and advanced to second with a sacrifice bunt from Aube, before Keefer drove him in with a sacrifice fly to right field to put the Mavs up 3-2.
UTA vs SFA RECAP
Kody Bullard (2-0) started for UTA, going 5.0 innings, striking out seven batters and allowing just one run off one hit. Brennen Smith,
Michael Wong and
Parker Schkade pitched the remaining four innings allowing two runs off a combined three hits.
UTA blasted three home runs against SFA – two coming off the bat of Minjarez and one from Cook. Minjarez finished with a team-high four RBI, while Aube finished with a team-high three hits. Minjarez and Cook also finished with a multi-hit game with two hits each.
The Mavericks rolled over their hot bats from the previous game into the start of the second game.
Connor Aube and
Andrew Keefer both reached base to start the game before Dominguez drove in Aube on a ground out. Childs walked to reach base two batters later to put runners on first and third. Minjarez promptly cleared the bases with a bomb over the left field wall to push the Maverick lead to 4-0.
Phillip Childs pushed the Maverick lead to five runs in the third inning. After
Andrew Miller doubled to right-center, Childs drove him in with a single up the middle of the infield.
Zac Cook continued the scoring trend with an RBI double down the right-field line to score Minjarez. Matt Cavanagh followed suit with an RBI single down the left field line. Aube was the final batter in the inning to jump in on the offensive explosion, hitting an RBI single to left field to make it 8-0.
The Lumberjacks got one back in the bottom of the third. With a runner on third base, a ground ball to third base scored the first run of the day for SFA.
Zac Cook pushed the lead back to eight with a solo home run in the fifth inning. In the sixth inning the Lumberjacks scored one more run to put their total to two.
In the seventh inning Minjarez connected on his second home run of the game with a solo shot to left field to push the score to 10-2.
The Lumberjacks had a last-ditch effort in the bottom of the ninth, hitting two solo home runs, but that would be all they could muster as the Mavs won the game 10-4.
The Mavericks will be back in action on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Clay Gould Ballpark against No. 23 Dallas Baptist.
