RICHARDSON, TX (04.12.16) - The UT Dallas baseball team picked up its fifth consecutive win Tuesday afternoon as the Comets earned a 9-4 home win over the University of Dallas in non-conference action.

The Comets (now 17-12) will look for six in a row Thursday night when they open a three-game American Southwest Conference series at McMurry. Game time is 7 p.m. in Abilene. The two teams will then play a 1 p.m. doubleheader Friday.

UTD got all the offense it needed in the bottom of the 1st inning as the Comets used five hits and a pair of UD errors to plate five runs. The Comets extended their lead with single runs in both the 2nd and 3rd and added a run in each the 5th and 7th to complete the scoring.

Down 2-0 coming to bat for the first time, the Comets would send 10 batters to plate the bottom of the 1st to take the lead for good. UTD opened its scoring with a sacrifice fly by Brandon George, scoring lead-off hitter Jimmy Norris, and evened the game, 2-2, on a sac fly by Haden Johnson, scoring Cody Duplechin two batters later. Ryan Burciaga gave the Comets the lead with RBI double down the left field line, scoring David McKenzie, and Bobby Garner then plated Tim Cole with an infield single. Burciaga would also score on the Garner single, thanks to a throwing error by the Crusader pitcher.

UTD tacked on a run in the 2nd on RBI groundout by McKenzie, scoring George, and extended its lead to 7-2 in the 3rd when Norris drew a bases-loaded walk. The Comets widened the lead to 8-2 in the 5th when Norris scored on a wild pitch. Leading 8-4 in the 7th, Norris scored his third run of the contest on a sacrifice fly by Duplechin.

Comet starter Clayton Buckner did not factor in the decision in his first outing of the season after recovering from injury, facing just three batters in the 1st before making an early exit. Cole Hanson (1-0) was the first of seven UTD relievers in the game and earned the win after pitching 1.2 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed. Burciaga finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored while Norris was 2-for-3 with three steals. Josh Covey was also 2-for-3 and Cole finished 2-for-4 as the other Comets multi-hit games.