UT Arlington pair combine for nine hits in Sun Belt win

Matt Shortall and Darien McLemore combined for nine hits and each drove in three runs as UT Arlington won a Sun Belt Conference game for the first time.

UTA (8-15, 1-4) beat Arkansas State 6-2 on Saturday afternoon at Clay Gould Ballpark, snapping a four-game Sun Belt losing streak.

The Mavericks play the deciding game of the series at 1 p.m. Sunday.

McLemore, a sophomore from Southlake Carroll, went 4 for 4, including a solo home run in the eighth. Shortall was 5 for 5, the third five-hit game of his career. Shortall’s solo home run in the bottom of the first tied the score after ASU’s Austin Baker homered off UTA starter Jess Amedee.

Shortall needed a triple in the eighth to hit for the cycle and came up inches short. He was thrown out at third after driving home UTA’s final two runs in a 16-hit attack.

McLemore singled in Greg McCall in the second inning for a 2-1 UTA lead and singled in Justin Copeland in the sixth for a 3-1 advantage.

UTA reliever Zach Hobbs got the win, allowing one hit in 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

This story was originally published March 22, 2014 at 5:27 PM with the headline "UT Arlington pair combine for nine hits in Sun Belt win."