AUSTIN, TX (02.28.09) – One week after sweeping one American Southwest Conference powerhouse (Texas Lutheran), the UT Dallas baseball team had a hard time corralling another one (Concordia), dropping two of three games in a weekend that featured a combined 77 runs.

UTD lost the series opener Friday night, 19-14; then were on the wrong end of a 24-2 shellacking in the opener Saturday before bouncing back to take a 16-2 win in the series finale Saturday afternoon.

It was not a good weekend to be a UTD pitcher as the Comet pitching staff gave up a combined 50 hits to the hot-hitting Tornados. UTD's bats accounted for 38 hits in two of the games, but were shut down with just six in the humiliating middle-game loss, striking out 17 times.

The Comets were not without offensive stars of their own. Third baseman Cody Ross was a combined 7-for-12 with 8 RBI while DH Randy Lorber went 6-for-10 with 5 RBI. First baseman Johnny Martinez finally had a breakout series, collecting seven hits with a pair of RBI.

CONCORDIA 19, UTD 14 (boxscore)

The series got off to a bad start for UTD and starter Drew Waggoner, who was touched for six runs in just his second inning. The Comets got one of those back, but then the wheels fell off as CTX knocked Waggoner out of the game in the 4th and went on to tally 12 runs with an 8-hit onslaught to go up 18-1 before UTD could get on track. The Comets had five straight two-out hits in the 5th to get four runs, then Cody Ross (who was 3-for-5 in the game) belted a three-run homer in the 6th as UTD added four more to cut the lead in half. Jay Johnson finally stopped the bleeding for the UTD pitchers, but the Comets were only able to manage five more runs the rest of the way.

CONCORDIA 24, UTD 2 (boxscore)

The Comets were never in this one as the Tornados pounded UTD pitchers for 21 hits, three home runs and 24 runs in the first four innings of a game that was mercifully only seven innings long. The Comets managed just six hits themselves, putting up single runs in the 3rd and 5th innings.

UTD 16, CONCORDIA 2 (boxscore)

UTD was finally able to take out its frustrations of the first two games by going on a 20-hit assault in the series finale. This time, it was the Comets who knocked three home runs, including shots from Randy Lorber, Cody Ross and Chris Biguenet. Lorber, Ross and leftfielder Jared Smith were a combined 5-for-14 in the game with 8 RBI and 8 runs scored.

UTD pitchers Mason Thompson, Brandon Dinwiddie and Adam Spinn also had some redemption of their own, cooling off the CTX bats. The trio - paced by Thompson's seven-inning start (1 run, 5 hits, 7 strikeouts)- limited the Tornados to just 8 hits while striking out 10.