Stephen F. Austin
Texas-Arlington
UTA Deals SFA Fourth Straight Defeat
2/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 26, 2012
ARLINGTON, Texas - The UT Arlington Mavericks scored a pair of runs off the Stephen F. Austin bullpen in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 3-1 win in the finale of the UTA Invitational at Clay Gould Ballpark on Sunday.
The loss spoiled a splendid start from SFA (1-7) freshman Cameron Gann, who allowed just one run in seven innings of work in his first collegiate start. Gann allowed just five hits and three walks with one strikeout in seven innings of work on the day.
SFA outhit the Mavs (5-2) 9-7 on the day, getting four hits from leadoff man Zach Benson and three more from Rene' Moreda, but only managed one hit for extra bases while a pair of UTA's seven hits went for extra bases.
Lance Day, UTA's Friday-night starter from a year ago, got the start and took the win, punching out five, walking one and allowing seven hits in eight strong innings. Kasey Merck earned the save by retiring the only batter he faced when he got Hunter Dozier to fly out to center field to end the game with two runners on in the ninth inning.
A fielder's choice of the bat of Phillip Incaviglia in the second inning gave the Mavericks an early 1-0 lead before SFA managed to respond just one inning later when Benson delivered his second hit of the day, a one-out single that scored Moreda from second base.
But Day geared up and retired 11 of the next 12 hitters he faced and was rewarded when the Mavericks finally took the lead in its half of the eighth inning. The `Jacks immediately got themselves in a bind when Priest hit Derek Miller to open the inning, and after retiring Ryan Walker and Preston Beck, complicated things by hitting Michael Guerra with two down to push the go-ahead runner into scoring position.
SFA then went to the pen once again to get Alex Moshier, but just one pitch into his first hitter of the game the Mavs went ahead when Brent Bollinger shot a single up the middle to score Miller. Jordan Vaughn added an RBI single one batter later, giving the Mavs a two-run edge going into the ninth.
Moreda and Benson managed to give SFA life in the ninth, each reaching on a single, but UTA went to Merck who got the job done by getting Dozier to fly out to end things.
SFA will try to put an end to its four-game losing streak on Tuesday when it hosts ULM at 2:00 p.m. at Jaycees Field.
-SFA-
