CLINTON, MS (03.21.09) – The UT Dallas baseball team pounded out 37 hits and scored 29 runs in a three-game American Southwest Conference weekend series at Mississippi College, but still only managed to pull out a win in the final game of the series Saturday afternoon.

UTD (13-12 overall) fell to 5-4 in ASC play, one game behind the Choctaws (13-10, 6-3) after dropping a 7-4 decision in the opener, then failing to hold on to a lead in an 8-7 loss in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader before ending the series with a big 18-9 win. The losses dropped the Comets into third place in the ASC East Division race, a game behind Mississippi.

The middle of the lineup with Cody Ross, Jared Smith and Adam Hudec combined for 15 hits in the series and 17 RBI. Smith had a pair of home runs, including a grand slam in the final game of the series.

GAME 1: MISSISSIPPI COL. 7, UTD 4 (boxscore)

Mississippi College scored three runs with a five-run attack in their first at-bat and never had to look back. The Comets got one run back in the 2nd inning with a bases-loaded walk, but trailed the Choctaws and ace Brett Hinson 6-1 going into the 7th inning. In the first six innings, UTD had just three hits and had struck out seven times.

UTD finally knocked Hinson, one of the league's top five pitchers, out in the 7th with a pair of doubles from Garet Norton and Smith, but only scored one run out of the rally. Mississippi answered with a  single run in the bottom of the 7th and was up 7-2 before Smith knocked a two-run homer in the top of the 9th for UTD's final runs.

GAME 2: MISSISSIPPI COL. 8, UTD 7 (boxscore)

In what turned into the rubber game of the series, it was the Comets who jumped ahead early and couldn't hold on to the lead this time. UTD put up six runs in the 3rd inning of the seven-inning game to give starter Drew Waggoner a 7-3 lead, but MC was able to answer with five runs over the next three innings to pull out the win. UTD, meanwhile, would never score again as a runner was picked off in the 4th, and then runners were stranded at third base in both the 5th and 6th.

Both Ross and catcher Grant Friddell knocked two-run homers in the six-run 3rd.

GAME 3: UTD 18, MISSISSIPPI COL. 9 (boxscore)

The Comets again got an early six-run inning, using five hits (including a Smith grand slam) and a MC error to take a 6-0 lead in the 2nd. This time, however, UTD continued to pile on the offense. After the Choctaws cut it to 7-5 in the 5th, UTD got a two-run homer from Hudec in the 6th, then a five-hit, five-run assault in the 7th to take command.

For good measure, UTD added to their 16-6 lead with four more runs in the 8th a two-out rally that included two walks and four hits.

The Comet attack made a winner out of Damion Chelakis, who went 6.0 innings and gave up just one earned run. Every player in the lineup had at least one hit, and seven finished with two or more.