MESA, Ariz. – The UT Arlington baseball team bats stayed hot as they downed Seattle U by a final score of 11-3 to advance in the 2023 WAC Tournament. 
 
The Mavericks offense belted out 17 hits with eight of the nine starters recording a base hit, led by Matt Cavanagh who went 3-5 with three RBIs. Garrison Berkley and Tyson Pointer each finished with four hits, which included a triple, for the game. Berkley also drove in two runs. 
 
Ryan Black finished with a double, his 13th of the year, and two RBIs. Tyce Armstrong, Wilson Galvan and Cade Sumbler each chipped in with one hit and one RBI for the game. Tyler Rice went 2-5 and scored one run while Ben Lumsden scored twice to round out the offensive output for UTA.
 
Connery Peters got the start on the mound and tossed a strong 5.1 innings, giving up two runs, one earned, on seven hits while punching out three Redhawks batters on 101 pitches. Peters picked up the victory in the effort. Thomas Kuykendall pitched the final 3.1 innings for the Mavs, surrendering one run on five hits and striking out three. Kuykendall picked up his first save of the season.
 
UTA jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a deep sacrifice fly from Armstrong in the top of the 1st inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Seattle U was retired in order which was highlighted by a spectacular diving catch in left field by Galvan.
 
The Mavs would get runners on the corners with no outs in the top of the 2nd and plate both thanks to a Berkley RBI single and a wild pitch. The Redhawks would score one in the bottom half of the inning but strand two runners on base. The inning ended with Peters taking a line drive off his body but stayed with it to fire a dart over to first to retire the Redhawks and keep the Mavs lead intact, 3-1.
 
The 3rd inning started with a Pointer double to left center. Galvan would advance him on a fly out to right center field. A Cavanagh single would score Pointer. Rice would advance Cavanagh to second on an infield single. Sumbler would proceed to single through the right side to score Cavanagh from second to push the Mavs lead to 5-1. Seattle U would go down in order to end the 3rd.
 
Both teams would go scoreless in the 4th inning before the Redhawks would score one in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it a 5-2 ball game.
 
UTA widened the gap with a four-run 6th inning that saw a Black RBI double to start the scoring for the Mavs. Galvan would extend his team-high reached base streak to 44 games with an RBI single, the third run of the inning. The scoring would end with a Cavanagh 2 RBI single to left field to put the Mavs up 9-2.
 
The Mavs would escape the bottom of the 6th that saw Seattle U load the bases but were unable to push across a run thanks to good pitching and a base running blunder by the Redhawks.
 
A scoreless 7th and 8th would bring us to the 9th inning. The Mavs would score two more runs in the top of the 9th thanks to a Berkley triple to bring in Lumsden and a Black groundout to first would score Berkley from third to round out the scoring for UTA. Seattle U would score one in the bottom half of the inning, but it would not be enough as the Mavs would secure the 11-3 victory.
 
NEXT UP
The No. 6 seed Mavs will play again tonight at 9 p.m. (CT) as they take on the top seeded Grand Canyon Antelopes. The Mavs must win to stay alive in the WAC Tournament while Grand Canyon has yet to lose.
 
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