ARLINGTON, Texas – The UT Arlington baseball team (22-19, 12-7 WAC) defeated UT Rio Grande Valley (23-17, 9-10 WAC) in the series opener by a final score of 12-5 on Friday afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark.
 
Offensively, the Mavericks belted out 12 hits while drawing seven walks and punching out only four times for the game.
 
Three different Mavs finished the game with three RBIs, led by Garrison Berkley who finished 3-3 on the game with three RBIs while drawing one walk and scoring twice. Ryan Black went 2-3, driving in three and walking once. Tyler Rice also finished 2-3 with 3 RBIs, scoring once and walking once.
 
The Mavs hit two solo big flies coming off the bats of Steven Saunders and Tyson Pointer. Saunders finished 2-4 with one RBI and one run scored while Pointer finished 1-4 with the one RBI and scored twice. Matt Cavanagh banged out a double and one RBI, finishing 2-4 and scoring twice to round out the offensive output for UTA.
 
UTA used two pitchers for the game, with Gabe Starks getting the start on the mound and going 6.1 innings. Starks surrendered five runs on eight hits while punching out three. Starks picked up the victory, moving his record to 5-0 and bringing his ERA down to 4.92 for the season.
 
Gray Bailey finished out the game for the Mavs, tossing the final 2.2 innings. Bailey gave up one hit and no runs while striking out three.
 
A big six-run 2nd inning proved to be enough offense for the Mavs. The inning started with a solo shot to right field off the bat of Saunders on the first pitch he saw. The inning was capped off with a single up the middle from Black that scored Berkley and Rice to put the Mavs up 6-0, a lead they never relinquished.
 
The Vaqueros cut the Mavs lead in half in the top of the 3rd, but UTA responded in the bottom half of the inning with a three-run inning themselves, starting with a Pointer no-doubter to right field and capped by a sacrifice fly from Berkley that scored Ben Lumsden to make it a 9-3 ball game.
 
The Mavs would add another run in the bottom of the 6th via a sacrifice fly from Black to make it a 10-3 game. 
 
The 7th would see both teams exchange two runs. Rice singled up the middle to plate the Mavs final two runs, rounding out the scoring output for both teams.

UTA has now won seven out of their last 10 games, averaging 9.5 runs per game.
 
NEXT UP
Game two of the series is slated for Saturday, April 28, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.
 
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