RICHARDSON, TX (03.15.19) - Former American Southwest Conference foe UT Tyler, a team not known for going deep this season, tagged four home runs at the UT Dallas Baseball Complex Friday afternoon to open a three-game set with the Comets with a 12-3 win.

UTD (7-12) allowed the Patriots (8-9) 17 hits as UT Tyler rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to pull away in the middle innings. The Comets and Patriots will conclude the three-game series Saturday with a 12 noon doubleheader. The games against UTT, which is transitioning to NCAA Division II, do not count in the ASC standings. UTD has now dropped five of its last six games.

The Comets, who scored just three runs on a 13-hit outburst of their own, opened the game looking primed for a big day. After a three-up, three-down top of the 1st for starter Blake Divalerio, UTD opened the game with a leadoff single by Matt Mikusek, followed by a double from Jacob Perry. The Comets would eventually load the bases, but Tyler's Nate Imig coaxed a strikeout and fly ball to end the threat without a run coming home.

UTD did finally take a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning after Patch Healy and Dylan Palmer started the inning with singles. Freshman third baseman Zach Jordan, in his first start of the season, then sent a bomb over the left field wall to give UTD an early 2-0 advantage.

But the Patriots answered with single runs in the 3rd and 4th innings, then tacked on two in the 5th and three more in the 6th to build a 7-2 lead. UTD got one run back in the when Ryan Burciaga brought home Perry with a sacrifice fly, but the Patriots answered with five more runs in the 8th and 9th to put the game out of reach.

Despite a 13-hit attack, UTD stranded 13 baserunners.

Healy led the Comets with three hits while Thomas Craig and Jordan finished with a pair each.