TOURNAMENT CENTRAL | TOURNAMENT BRACKET | TOURNAMENT HISTORY

AUSTIN, TX (05.06.15) - East Texas Baptist rallied for seven late runs Wednesday morning to knock the UT Dallas Comets into the elimination bracket of the 2015 American Southwest Conference Baseball Championship Tournament with an 8-7 extra-inning defeat.

UTD (25-16) will now face Hardin-Simmons, a 6-5 loser to Concordia Texas, in an elimination game at 10 am Thursday morning. With the loss, the Comets would have to survive through four elimination games to advance to the championship bout.
 
The Comets gave up an early 3-1 lead when the Tigers (20-20) got to UTD starter Tyler Dauer, scoring three two-out runs in the 8^th inning. The Comets were able to regain the lead at 5-4 with two runs of their own in the 8^th, but ETBU rallied to tie the game in the 9^th and then plated three more runs in the 10^th. A late two-run rally by the Comets in the 10^th came up one run shy and pushed ETBU to the win.
 
Micah Easterling, who worked the last 1.1 innings for UTD, took the loss.
 
Dauer was lights-out for the Comets through the first seven innings, scattering three hits and striking out five Tiger hitters. But in the 8^th,  he gave up a leadoff triple to ETBU's Ashley Dukes, and was a hitter away from getting out of the inning after two quick outs. But the Tigers' Zach Compton, Connor Combs and Tyler Bates delivered three straight RBI hits – two of them doubles to push three runs home and take a late 4-3 lead.
 
The Comets rallied immediately, putting together three hits and a pair of walks after two outs. Ryan Downs brought home the tying run with an RBI double, then Jimmy Norris forced a bases-loaded walk to put UTD back out front, 5-4, with just three outs remaining.
 
But the Tigers weren't finished. Pinch hitter Brice Winter almost tied the game single-handedly in the 9th, launching a leadoff rocket to the left field wall that hit a four feet from the top. UTD leftfielder Haden Johnson picked up the carom and threw Winter out at second for the first out. But ETBU tied the score at 5-5 anyway with a pair of hits, a walk and wild pitch and UTD left the winning run at third base in the their half of the inning. UTD stranded 13 baserunners in the game, a majority in scoring position.
 
ETBU then erupted for three more extra-base hits to take an 8-5 lead in the top of the 10^th.  The key play was a one-out popup that was misplayed into an RBI triple to keep the inning going for the Tigers. But the Comets came back once more. After a two-out error and three more hits, Norris and Brandon George scored to make it a one-run game, and the Comets had the winning runs in scoring position when the game ended.

The Comets took a 1-0 lead in the 1^st when Norris singled to open the game, stole second, was bunted over to third and came home on a wild pitch.

UTD had opportunities in the 3^rd and 4^th to break the game open, but had to settle for single runs each inning, stranding five runners while taking just a 3-1 advantage. In the 3rd, a hit batter, single and bunt single from Norris loaded the bases with no outs, but a double play ended the inning with just one run scoring. A hit batter, single and RBI double from Downs plated a run in the 4th before a strikeout and fly ball ended the threat.
 
Brandon Clounch led the way with 3-for-4 hitting while Norris, Johnson, Downs and David McKenzie each had two.