AUSTIN, TX (05.06.14) - Concordia Texas junior hurler Lane Hobbs went the distance Friday night, limiting the UT Dallas baseball team to just three hits while his teammates scratched out a 2-0 victory over the Comets in the opening game of the American Sothwest Conference Blue Division Tournament.

Hobbs continually frustrated the Comets (21-19), striking out nine UTD batters and allowing just a single hit in three different innings. Between a Jimmy Norris infield hit to start the game and a two-out single from Haden Johnson with two outs in the 9th inning, the Comets managed just one hit against Hobbs.

"We ran into a buzzsaw tonight," said UTD coach Shane Shewmake afterwards. "They just didn't give us many opportunities tonight, and we weren't able to take advantage of the ones they did."

The Comets will now meet LeTourneau University, an 8-4 loser to UT Tyler, in the tournament's first elimination game at 1 pm Saturday at Concordia's Tornado Field. Concordia advances to play UT Tyler in a winner's bracket game at 4 pm. The UTD/LETU winner will play again at 7 pm Saturday against the loser of the UTT/CTX game. The mini tournament concludes Sunday with the winner advancing to a best-of-three series for the ASC title.

UTD senior starter Aaron Bach almost matched Hobbs pitch-for-pitch, striking out six; but he allowed seven hits, though only one drove in a run. He also walked a pair and hit a batter. The Comets did not commit an error in the game.
 

In addition to the three hits, Hobbs put two other runners aboard with a walk and hit batter, and the Concordia defense allowed two more with a pair of errors. The Comets had runners at third just twice and were unable to plate either one.

Despite the Comets' struggles against Hobbs, it was still just a 1-0 game until the 7th inning when Concordia strung together a pair of singles and a walk to score an insurance run with two outs.

The Comets had their best chance in the top of the 1st. Norris beat out a high chopper to the CTX shortstop, stole second base and advanced to third before being left stranded. Bach, though, followed that with his roughest inning. He gave up a pair of singles in the bottom of the 1st and had runners at the corners with no outs after a wild pitch. But third baseman Ryan Burciaga bailed him out by charging a ground ball and throwing out the lead CTX runner at the plate. Unfortunately, the Tornados followed with a sacrifice fly to score at least one run out of the three-hit start and took a 1-0 lead.

Bach and the Comet defense kept it within reach until CTX got a two-out RBI single to stretch out the lead. Mitch Barati reached on an error to start the 8th for the Comets, but Hobbs got out of trouble with three strikeouts.