GRAND PRAIRIE, TX (03.11.15) - The UT Dallas baseball returned to the diamond Wednesday afternoon with a 4-3 non-conference loss at Arlington Baptist.

The Comets (now 4-10) return to action this weekend as they visit Howard Payne for a three-game American Southwest Conference series. The two teams will play a 2 p.m. game on Friday before completing the series with a 12 p.m. doubleheader Saturday in Brownwood.

The host Patriots (now 9-12) opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st when Florentino Moreno singled in lead-off hitter Kody Well to give ABC an early 1-0 lead. The Comets answered in the top of the next frame as Bobby Garner plated Haden Johnson with a groundout to shortstop. ABC then opened the its half of the third with back-to-back triples by Ryan Wagley and Moreno and would grab a 3-1 lead by the end of the 3rd.

The Comets cut the lead to a single run in the top of the 5th when Garner came home from third on a sacrifice fly by Brandon George. UTD knotted the game, 3-3, in the top of the 8th on a groundout to third base by Kaleb Robinson, scoring Tim Cole. However, the Patriots would plate the winning run in the bottom of the 8th as Tyler Brown scored Moreno with a single up the middle.

Matt McKennon got the mid-week start for the Comets as one of seven pitchers to take the mound. McKennon tossed the first two frames, giving up a run on three hits and a pair of walks. Nick Cummings, Micah Easterling, Zach Rubel, Tristan DerMargosian and Andrew Leilich each tossed a frame before Brandon Clounch (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up the go ahead run in the 8th.

Offensively, the Comets managed just six hits off of eight ABC hitters with George going 2-for-4 as the only UTD batter with multiple hits.