Stephen F. Austin
Texas-Arlington
Early Runs Enough To Get SFA Past UTA
4/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 24, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - SFA scored four runs in the first inning off of UTA starter Ryan Robinson and played errorless defense behind a trio of pitchers in hanging on to a 6-4 win over the Mavericks at Jaycees Field on Friday.
Erich Lehmann won his fourth consecutive start for the `Jacks (17-23, 8-13) who won their second game over UTA (23-18, 14-8) this season. SFA also defeated UTA 12-6 in Edinburg on Feb. 27 at the Al Ogletree Classic.
Lehmann went 6.0 innings and struck out four, allowing all four UTA runs, with three of them coming in the fifth inning. He, along with relievers Chris Court and Richard Folmer, allowed five hits to the middle-of-the-order trio of Michael Choice, Matt Otteman and Andrew Kainer, but surrendered just four hits to the rest of the lineup.
Court put just one runner on bas in his 2.0 innings of relief, setting things up for Folmer to pick up his eighth save of the season.
Robinson entered the afternoon with just a 0.84 ERA in Southland Conference games, but got roughed up early by a Lumberjack offense that has now recorded at least 10 hits in nine straight games.
It took just two pitches for SFA to get on the board as Zach Gardner, who was just a double short of the cycle at Houston on Tuesday, shot Robinson's first pitch of the game into the right field corner for a leadoff two-bagger. Tanner Hines then directed the very next pitch through the hole on the right side of the infield to plate Gardner from second.
Sean Meyers then picked up the first of his three hits on the day, singling to center after a long at-bat just one hitter later. After Brian Ferguson hit into a double play, Ryan Priest made it 2-0 SFA with a two-strike single in front of Choice in center field to score Hines. Two batters later Bo Coffman capped the first-inning offense with a opposite-field double with the runners going on a full count that scored both Priest from second and Jarid Scarafiotti from first, making it 4-0 `Jacks after one.
Lehmann then did his job by setting the next eight Maverick hitters down in order, and got some more cushion on Meyers sixth home run of the season to lead off the third inning.
In the fourth the Mavs got that run back on a two-out double by Tim Steggall that scored Otteman, but Ryan Davis then went down swinging with runners at second and third to keep the `Jacks ahead 5-1.
The lead did not stay at four for long for SFA as the UTA offense quickly went to work in its half of the fifth. Jay Pitschka started it off with a double to left field on in front of Collin Garner who walked one batter later. That set the table for the middle of the Maverick order, with each hitter coming through with a hit. Choice's only hit of the day went through the right side to load the bags and Otteman drove in a pair of runs with a double into the right-center field gap, making the score 5-3. Kainer's single plated another run one batter later, but once again the UTA offense could not produce much after that as Chad Comer went down swinging before Steggall flied out, ending the threat.
To SFA's credit the offense immediately responded as Gardner kicked off the bottom of the sixth with his second double of the game - the fourth time this season that Gardner had hit multiple doubles in a game after never having more than one double in a game in his previous three seasons. Hines then moved Gardner to third with a bunt and Meyers picked up his second RBI of the game by fisting a double over the glove of a leaping Ryan Davis at first base to make it 6-4.
Lehmann then sat UTA down in order in the sixth before giving way to the bullpen as Court and Folmer picked up where Lehmann left off. Court went 1-2-3 through the seventh and allowed just one hit in the eighth before handing the ball over to Folmer in the ninth.
It was not the cleanest of Folmer's eight saves on the season, but the senior did work his way out of a jam. After putting the first to Mav hitters on via single and walk, he caught a break when Garner attempted a sacrifice bunt and Scarafiotti pounced on the baseball and fired to third to get the lead runner and keep the double play in order. That proved important with Choice coming to the plate as the go-ahead run, but Choice swung at the very first pitch he saw and grounded sharply right to Jeffrey Kello at second base who started a textbook double play to close the game.
SFA and UTA continue the series on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. from Jaycees Field. Nathan Long is scheduled to throw for UTA, while Johnny Cardenas will hand the ball off to sophomore Jared West.
The game can be heard live on KSFA 860 AM.
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