Stephen F. Austin
UT Arlington @ SFA
SFA Drops Opener Of SLC Tournament
5/26/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 26, 2010
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The No. 5 UT-Arlington Mavericks closed out a day of upsets at the first day of the Southland Conference Tournament by taking advantage of three two-out walks in the top of the seventh to fuel a 10-4 victory over No. 4 Stephen F. Austin at Whataburger Field.
The Lumberjacks drop into the bottom half of the bracket with the loss and now draw top-seeded Texas State in a 12:00 p.m. elimination game to try and keep its season alive. The Bobcats fell to No. 8 Nicholls, 13-2, in just eight innings in Game 3 of the day.
Each of the three higher-seeded teams in the tournament had fallen on Day 1, and SFA (34-21) could not avoid the bad karma either with UTA's (28-29) Chad Comer's two-run single driving in the go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh off of Lumberjack starter Tyler Herriage. Herriage ended up taking the loss for the `Jacks, allowing just four runs in 6.2 innings before the Mavs' two-out rally in the seventh. He struck out seven Mavericks on the night, just one shy of his season high.
Jason Mitchell earned the win for UTA with six innings of work, allowing four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts after throwing a complete-game, three-hit shutout against the `Jacks on May 7 in Arlington. Logan Bawcom earned the save for the Mavs, his third of the year by pitching the final three scoreless innings.
Bo Coffman, Jordan Lewis and Garrett Smith each finished with two hits for the `Jacks to lead the offense.
The turning point of the game came when the Lumberjacks elected to intentionally walk all-America outfielder Michael Choice in a 4-4 ballgame with two outs and the bases empty in the seventh. The Mavs then followed with two more walks to Steffan Guest and Preston Beck before Comer delivered the go-ahead blow.
SFA had taken an early lead on a three-run home run from Justin Long in the bottom of the second before giving back a run in the third on a double from Jordan Vaughn in to the right-center gap with nobody out. Herriage followed that by striking out the next three batters, but UTA was able to knot the score one inning later on a two-run homer from Brian Nephew, his third of the season.
It looked as though the `Jacks might be able to put something together against Mitchell in the top of the fifth after Smith led off the inning with a single to left, but Tanner Hines was ejected one batter later after arguing a called third strike at home plate and that shifted the momentum in the Mavs' favor long enough to work out of the inning and plate an unearned run one frame later to take a 4-3 lead.
SFA responded in the bottom of the sixth, putting the first two runners on the corners to set up a sacrifice fly from Lewis that tied the score at four apiece. But the Mavs then took advantage of three walks in the seventh came back to take an 8-4 lead in the seventh on RBI hits from Comer, Jesse Payne and Nephew.
Bawcom took over from there, striking out five Lumberjacks in his three innings of work to shut the door. He got two more insurance runs in the top of the ninth as well, giving the Mavs a comfortable 10-4 cushion heading into the final frame.
The Lumberjacks will look to stave off elimination on Thursday against the Bobcats with Brad Oates slated to get the start for SFA. Texas State will go with senior righty Michael Russo in the noon start.
-SFA-
