Box Score RICHARDSON, TX (05.03.14) - The UT Dallas baseball team finished up the 2014 regular season, claiming its sixth conference series win after a doubleheader split with Hardin-Simmons University Saturday afternoon. The Comets (24-15, 19-13 ASC), who won the series opener 8-6 Friday, shut out the Cowboys (18-22, 14-19 ASC) 5-0 in the DH opener Saturday before falling 5-2 in the series finale.
The series win left the Comets as the third-place team in the regular season standings heading into next week's ASC Championship Tournament, finishing one-half game ahead of University of Mary-Hardin Baylor.
UTD will meet No. 6 seed Sul Ross State University in the opening round game Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm at Concordia University's Tornado Field in Austin, Texas. The eight-team, double-elimination tournament will run through Saturday (or, if necessary, Sunday) with four games scheduled each of the first three days.
HSU, which entered the final regular season series as the No. 8 team in the standings, ended up on the outside looking in despite the finale win. The Cowboys ended the season tied with UT Tyler for 8th place at 14-19 in ASC play, but lost the tiebreaker to the Patriots earlier this season.
FRIDAY GAME: UTD 8, HSU 6Senior outfielder
followed by a double by
single after back-to-back hit batters by the third HSU pitcher of the game, Taylor Peables. The Cowboys got a run back in the 8th on a sacrifice fly before Clounch took over with two outs in the frame and closed the contest to collect his ASC-leading ninth save of the season, one shy of the UTD single-season record.
The Cowboys opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd after Zack de Luna tripled to right-centerfield and then scored on a Brandon Walker sacrifice fly. UTD then snagged the lead in the bottom of the frame on a two-run homer by freshman
(3-3) tossed a two-hit 5-0 shutout to secure the series win for the Comets in the opener of the Saturday doubleheader. UTD got all the runs it would need with a five-run 3rd inning, escaped a bases-loaded situation in the HSU 4th, then cruised to the win.
The Comets opened the 3rd with four straight hitters reaching base and the first run scoring on a bases-loaded walk to
, but only managed four more hits the rest of the way in a 5-2 loss.
Starter
Aaron Bach (3-1) picked up his first loss of the season, struggling to find his rhythm in the 1st inning as HSU tallied five base hits and brought three runs home. The Cowboys continued to threaten with base hits and walks in the next three frames, finally scoring another run to make it 4-0 in the 4th.
After an RBI double - the 10th hit against Bach - brought the fourth run home in the 4th,
Micah Easterling took over on the mound and put together an impressive 5.1 innings of relief work. Easterling, making his first relief appearance of the year, scattered four hits and allowed just one more run, striking out six Cowboys to keep the Comets in the game.
Down 4-0, UTD finally solved HSU starter Eric Zamora (4-2), who had a perfect game going for the first 3.2 innings. Marti got the first base hit of the game with two outs in the 4th, then George launched a line shot inside the leftfield foul pole to cut the lead in half at 4-2.
UTD threatened again against Zamora in the each of the 5th, 6th and 7th innings, but could not push a run across. In the 5th, UTD could not take advantage of two hits and an HSU error. In the 6th George singles and advanced to third on consecutive wild pitches, but was left stranded. In the 7th, UTD got two runners on with one out, but Zamora coazed a pair of popups to end the threat.
George was 3-for-4 in the finale, accounting for all but four Comet hits. Fly also ended 2-for-3.
