SEGUIN, TX (02.23.19) - The UT Dallas baseball team closed out a crucial in-region series with No. 3-ranked Texas Lutheran Saturday with a double header split against the 2018 NCAA Division III national runner up.
The Comets (4-6) dropped Saturday's opener to TLU, 5-1, but bounced back for a 9-5 win over the Bulldogs in the final game to take the series, 2-1. UTD will return to action Tuesday with a 3 p.m. road game at Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton.
GAME 1 - TLU 5, UTD 1
The Comets fell behind early and managed just four hits off TLU hurler Dylan Murrell in a 5-1 loss to the Bulldogs in the second game of the three-game set.
Down 3-0 in the 5th,
Aaron Fanning accounted for UTD's lone run with a two-out solo homer, his first of the season, to draw the Comets within two runs. However, TLU answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame while Murrell went the distance for his first win of the season.
GAME 2 - UTD 9, TLU 5
Senior
Thomas Craig continued to swing a hot bat as he went 4-for-6 with his fifth home run of the season as the Comets earned the series victory with a 9-5 win over the Bulldogs.
With the game knotted 4-4 after three frames, Craig launched a two-run shot, scoring
Jacob Perry, to lift the Comets to a 6-4 advantage. UTD reliever
Logan McPherson (1-0) would toss 5.0 innings and give up just two hits while striking out five to propel the Comets to the win.
UTD started the scoring in the top of the 1st with an RBI single by
Patch Healy, but the Bulldogs answered with a run in the bottom of the 2nd to even the game, 1-1. The Comets plated three runs on two hits in the 3rd to regain the lead, but TLU again responded with three runs of the its own in the bottom of the inning. Healy picked up his second RBI hit of the game to start the three-run 3rd while the Comets later added runs on groundouts by
Austin Blanford and Fanning
After taking the lead on Craig's long ball, the Comets added a run each in the 5th and the 6th to extend their lead to 8-4. UTD got a sacrifice fly from
Ryan Sloma in the 5th and an RBI double from Craig in the 6th. TLU got a run back in the 7th to draw back within three scores, but the Comets closed out the scoring with an RBI single by Sloma in the 8th.
