STEPHENVILLE, Texas – A wild pitch that escaped UT Arlington's catcher to the backstop brought Tarleton's
Jack Wagner sliding safely home from third base as the Texans completed a comeback, walking the Mavericks off 5-4 in the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
The win was the Texans (11-5, 1-2 WAC) first Western Athletic Conference win of the season as they avoided a series sweep by the Mavericks (7-8, 2-1 WAC). It was Tarleton's first win over UTA at the Division 1 level as they were previously 0-5.
Trailing 4-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, the Texans proceeded to scratch across three runs to tie the game at four. With two outs and two runners on,
Kooper Shook hit an RBI single that landed just in front of the UTA right fielder to make it 4-2.
Grant Kerry and
Cole Miears were then hit by pitches in consecutive at-bats as the Texans made it 4-3. The tying run came courtesy of a UTA wild pitch as Shook jetted home from third base.
The game winning run in the ninth came the same way as the runs in the eighth inning did, with two outs.
Jack Wagner singled to left field, the first baserunner of the inning after two Texan groundouts.
Carter Dobrinski singled to right field in the next at-bat, pushing Wagner to third. Wagner then scored on a passed ball as Shook was batting.
Jake Burcham (W, 1-1) threw 3.0 innings, blanking the Mavericks in the eighth and ninth innings to help fuel the Texan comeback and earn his first win of the season. He had two strikeouts and two walks, allowing just one run in the seventh inning on four hits.
The Texans first run came courtesy of
Cole Miears in the third inning, as he answered UTA's one spot in the top half with a solo home run to left field, his second home run of the season.
UTA plated two in the sixth as Tyson Pointer doubled down the left field line to score one and Cade Sumbler hit an RBI single through the left side as they took a 3-1 lead. Wilson Galvan led the Mavs with three hits, an RBI and run scored.
Hunter Day got the starting nod on the mound for Tarleton and threw 6.0 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, striking out four. Connery Peters (L, 0-2) was given the loss as two runs (one earned) scored on his watch in the final 1.1 innings.
Miears led Tarleton with two hits and two RBI.
Mason Hammonds also added two hits while Wagner had a hit, two walks and two runs scored.
Tarleton now turns its attention to Tuesday as they host the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 3 p.m. CT on WACInternational.tv.
