Stephen F. Austin
Texas-Arlington
Thomas Dominates Mavs In 9-1 Win
5/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Kevin Thomas tossed his first complete game of his career on Sunday and SFA gave him plenty of run support as the `Jacks picked up a 9-1 win on senior day over Texas-Arlington to stay in the race for a berth in the Southland Conference Tournament.
Thomas picked up his third win in as many appearances and bettered his seven-inning performance last Sunday by striking out a career-high eight batters and allowing only six hits in his nine innings of work. The win keeps SFA (24-26, 11-15) alive in the race for the final spot in the SLC Tournament heading into next weekend's SLC final series at Sam Houston.
Andy Sauter didn't pitch poorly for UTA (22-29, 13-14), but was hindered by three wild pitches and a pair of Maverick errors in his 6 1/3 innings of work as he took his third loss of the year.
Steffan Guest tallied the only run of the game for UTA with a solo home run in the second inning, and he finished the afternoon going 2-for-2 with a pair of walks to be the only hitter Thomas didn't retire on the day; however, Thomas would only allow two other runners to even reach second base after that.
The `Jacks answered the second-inning run with one of their own in the bottom half of the frame, using a two-base error by center fielder Michael Choice to get Kevin Croft on second base. He would move up to third on a passed ball and eventually score on Sauter's first wild pitch of the day.
Kai Kirby led off with a double in the third inning after Thomas set the Mavs down in order in the top half of the inning, and scored his first of three runs on the day two batters later when Noel Trevino blooped a ball into right field. Kirby likely would have had to stop at third on the play, but second baseman Justin McPherson kicked the ball even farther into the corner to allow Kirby to score and Trevino to reach second and put SFA up 2-1.
SFA got three more runs in the fifth, with Kevin Crabtree mashing an RBI double to left-center field to push one run home and put runners at second and third. Another wild pitch brought home Trevino and Crabtree came home one batter later on a single by Sean Meyers that gave SFA a 5-1 lead.
Thomas continued to cruise as SFA finally drove Sauter from the game in the seventh on an RBI double from Kevin Croft and a sacrifice fly from Justin Roland, and the `Jacks added two more in the eighth on a two-run single from Crabtree for the game's final margin.
SFA continues play on Wednesday with a non-conference game against Baylor, then travels to Huntsville to take on Sam Houston for the season's final series.
-SFA-
