RICHARDSON, TX (03.13.10) - Somewhere between a record-setting 28-12 pasting in the opener, and a series-clinching 10-5 finale, the UT Dallas baseball team somehow managed to let one get away.

In the opening game of a Saturday doubleheader, the University of the Ozarks rallied a 3-1 deficit with three late runs to hand the Comets (12-6, 2-1) an 8-inning, 4-3 loss.

Despite the fact that the Comets won their opening American Southwest Conference East Division series of the season, it was the loss that kept the series from being a sweep and stuck in the craw of UTD Coach Shane Shewmake and his team because it already puts them a game back of ASC East foes Mississippi College andc UT-Tyler, which swept their opening series.

FRIDAY: UTD 28, OZARKS 12 (Boxscore)

When the UT Dallas baseball team found itself in a 6-0 hole just two innings into their Friday series opener, they immediately began scrambling to find a way to ignite some kind of rally, Instead, what they did was set the Ozarks pitching staff completely on fire, blazing back with a record-breaking 28-hit attack on their way to a thundering 28-12 win. Ozarks sent six pitchers out to the mound to try to quell the fire, but each fell victim to the UTD attack.

With a strong northerly breeze blowing straight out Friday, the Comets slammed six home runs along the way (one short of the team record) with both Drew Hallford and Matt Kelly hitting a pair apiece. Hallford finished the day 4-for-6 with 7 RBI, and Kelly drove in 5 more runs with his two bombs.

Those numbers, though, represented less than half of the Comets' offensive output as UTD launched an all-out assault on the record books. UTD broke two records with 28 hits and 52 total bases, tied another with 28 runs and came close to several others. (UTD had scored 28 runs on 27 hits against Austin College back in 2002; and matched the 28-run total against Southwestern in 2008. The previous record for total bases was 47 back in 2004 against Southwest Assemblies of God University.

Hallford's 11 total bases tied another individual mark.

The Comets also benefited from 10 walks, a couple of hit batters and three Ozark errors.

It was a good thing as UTD starter Mason Thompson (W, 4-0) was battered around for 12 hits and 8 runs in 8.0 innings of work. The good news, though, was that Thompson surrendered just three hits and one run after a disastrous 2nd inning when 11 Eagle batters came to the plate and took a 6-0 lead with six hits and a UTD error.

The Comets answered immediately, though, scoring five runs in their half of the 2nd and didn't stop for the rest of the game – putting two or more runs on the board in every frame.

A two-run triple from Randy Lorber brough home two runs in the 2nd, then Hallford and Kelly both went deep in the 3rd as 11 hitters came to the plate. Kelly hit his second-straight homer in his next at-bat, putting 2 runs on the board in the 4th. Jason Diemer (in his first game back after an early-season injury) and Jacob Starnes (who was 4-for-5 with 3 runs and 3 RBI) got into the act in a three-run 5th, As Ozarks continued to send in pitching replacements throughout the later innings, the Comets put up 3-run frames in both the 6th and 7th before finishing the day with a five-run 8th that featured a 3-run blast from Hallford.

SATURDAY GAME 1: OZARKS 4, UTD 3 (Boxscore)

The Comets seemed well on their way to another win in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader with a 3-2 lead and closer Adam Spinn on the mound. But Saturday was not Spinn's day. After striking out the first batter he faced in the 7th,, Spinn gave up a game-tying RBI triple. Then, in the 8th, he gave up a double to Ozarks' Jeremy Hogan, who scored tthe game winner on an error by UTD third baseman Joseph Killgore.

The game was tied after two innings as UTD scored with doubles by Grant Friddell and Diemer. Lorber then made it 3-1 with a two-run homer over the centerfield wall in the 5th. But while Ozarks was rallying, UTD did not get another hit against Ozarks starter Cory Briggs and reliever Bill Smith.

No Comet had more than one hit in the game.

GAME 2: UTD 10, OZARKS 5 (Boxscore)

With the series on the line, UTD looked in trouble again when Ozarks answered a 2-run homer from Hallford in the 2nd by sending 10 batters to the plate in the 3rd and scoring four runs with back-to-back homers.

But UTD answered with a vengeance, taking command in their half of the 3rd. The Comets had seven hits in the inning, and sent home six runs. Lorber delivered a two-run home and Adam Hudec, who was 3-for-4) brought home two more with an RBI single. Lorber and Diemer both scored insurance runs in the 4th to make a winner out of Cameron Brown (1-0), who relieved starter Max Willard in the 3rd.