RICHARDSON, TX (04.05.10) – For the fifth time in games against UT Tyler this season, it was almost “déjà vu all over again,” as baseball great Yogi Berra used to say.
Only this time, it was the UT Dallas baseball team that decided to rewrite what had become an all-too-familiar script in their matchups with the American Southwest Conference rivals this season. This time, the Comets (15-10) came up with a late rally, scoring six times in the bottom of the 8th inning to take an 8-7 non-conference win over the Patriots Monday afternoon at the UTD Baseball Field. The win snapped a 14-game win streak for the Patriots (23-8), who are leading the ASC East Division race with a spotless mark.
In all three meetings with UTT a couple of weeks ago, the Comets had seen early leads disintegrate with late Patriot rallies.
“I'm sure at one point, we started thinking 'here we go again,'” said UTD Coach
Shane Shewmake, whose team saw an early 2-0 lead evaporate when the Patriots went up 6-2 in the top of the 8th inning. “But we did a great job coming back and having quality at-bats against their closer [Logan Chitwood'.”
UTD centerfielder
Jason Diemer had the biggest of the five hits in the six-run 8th, driving a two-out single into left field off Chitwood that brought home
Larry Bolding and
Randy Lorber with the go-ahead runs. Diemer, who was 3-for-4 for the Comets, was part of a middle-of-the-order trio with
Joseph Killgore and
Drew Hallford that accounted for nine of UTD's 14 hits.
“I'm glad we finally came through against them,” said Diemer, who had been part of four consecutive losses to the Patriots (including a three-game ASC sweep two weekends ago). “This would have been the fifth time we lost to them had we not rallied. We need to take victories like this and use them to give us confidence heading into our final conference games.”
Diemer's heroics saved the day for UTD relievers
Jonathan Reeder and
Adam Spinn, who saw an early 2-0 lead slip away under their watch. Reeder was tagged with the first five runs of a 6-run Patriot rally, giving up five hits in just 2.0 innings of work. Reeder was responsible for a two-run 7th that tied the score, then had custody of the first three base runners in UTT's four-run 8th that gave them a 6-2 lead with their closer on the mound. Spinn gave up the Patriots final two runs, but was able to pick up his third win of the season when the Comet bats saved things in their last at-bat.
Lost in all the late-game drama may have been the brightest spot of the game for UTD – the spectacular return of starting pitcher
Marvin Prestridge. Prestridge, who has missed much of the last month due to injury, held the ASC East Division-leading Patriots to just two hits through a scoreless five-inning start.
“It was a big lift for us to see him back on the bump and as good as he's always been,” said Shewmake, who should be able to insert the junior transfer back into the starting rotation when the team returns to league play this weekend. Prestridge struck out only one hitter, but let his defense do the work by taking care of 13 of the 19 batters he faced.
UTD took an early 2-0 lead in the 2nd against UTT starter Clint Sharp, scoring twice on three straight hits from Killgore, Hallford and Grant Fridell to open the inning.
Tyler, which had rallied after trailing the Comets in each of its three games last weekend in Tyler, answered once Prestridge left the game. In the 7th, they finally got an RBI hit when No. 9 hitter Jake Ashley rapped a two-run double to tie the game.
Things unraveled for Reeder in the Tyler 8th when Tyler Clakely's bases-loaded triple down the rightfield line allowed the Patriots to take the lead. When Clakely scored on a single from Brett Hightower, the Patriots had a 6-2 lead and Chitwood in the game to close the door.
Killgore, Hallford and Friddell set the stage for the rally by opening the inning with three straight hits. Friddell's single to center brought home two runs, then Lorber and Diemer finished things off with RBI hits with two outs on the board.
“Now is the time for us to get on a roll,” Shemake said. “Hopefully, this is the kind of win that can do that for us.”
UTD, which hosts McMurry in a non-conference game Tuesday afternoon at 3 pm, has three more ASC East Division opponents, starting this weekend at LeTourneau.
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