Seven-run seventh lifts UTA baseball past TCU
Good luck figuring out the UT Arlington baseball team.
Having scored only seven runs all weekend while being swept by Georgia State, the Mavericks scored seven runs with two outs in the seventh inning to snap a five-game losing streak and hand the second-ranked Horned Frogs their worst loss of the season, 8-1 on Tuesday night at Clay Gould Ballpark.
“We just needed to get a big hit, and we finally got one to fall,” UTA coach Darin Thomas said. “And it turned into a few more.”
The Mavericks got plenty to fall in the seventh inning, when a tie ballgame turned into TCU’s biggest deficit of the season in the span of one out.
UTA (13-14) strung together seven singles and a walk from the time Tyler Alexander recorded the second out until Brian Trieglaff struck out Eric Tate to finally end the inning.
The presence of Levi Scott worked wonders for the sputtering UTA offense. After missing five games with an ankle injury, Scott signaled his return with a home run in his first at-bat of the night.
But the big inning didn’t come until later. For the first six innings, Tyler Alexander shut down UTA. He retired the next 12 hitters after Scott’s early homer and held the Mavericks to just three hits until the seventh inning.
“My goodness, we had our hands full,” Thomas said. “He’s an outstanding pitcher, and it was tough to score.”
It appeared that the Frogs (21-5) were going to take over after scoring in the fifth inning, but they couldn’t string together more hits.
TCU had five hits in the first four innings, but a runner didn’t reach third base until the Frogs broke through in the fifth. After Keaton Jones advanced on a sacrifice bunt, Connor Wanhanen tied things up with a triple to right field.
The Frogs finished the night 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position. UTA freshmen Jake Wilcox and Daniel James closed things out with 4 1/3 innings of three-hit ball.
TCU hadn’t allowed eight runs all season, and it was the first time UTA scored eight runs since Feb. 27. The win helped UTA avoid an 0-6 homestand.
“I wouldn’t say we haven’t been playing well at home, I’d say we haven’t been winning at home,” Thomas said. “It was a good win for us.”
Both teams hit the road in different directions this weekend. The Frogs travel to Lubbock for a Big 12 series at Texas Tech. UTA heads east for a Sun Belt series at Louisiana-Monroe.
This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 10:57 PM with the headline "Seven-run seventh lifts UTA baseball past TCU."