RICHARDSON, TX (02.21.20) - The UT Dallas baseball team continued its early season offensive onslaught, and got a solid start from junior
Blake Birdwell, to pick up an 9-4 win over Hardin-Simmons in the 2020 home opener Friday afternoon at the UTD Baseball Complex.
The game, which was the first American Southwest Conference contest of the season, was the first of three between UTD (4-3 overall, 0-1 ASC) and HSU (0-7, 0-1) this weekend. The Comets and Cowboys meet in a Saturday doubleheader starting at 12 noon.
UTD pounded out 13 hits, took advantage of four walks, five hit batters and two HSU errors to score in all but two innings. The only blemish on the Comets' first home game of the season were a pair of 8th inning errors that led to three unearned HSU runs. UTD also stranded 14 baserunners in eight frames.
Birdwell, a junior transfer from Burleson and Cedar Valley College, more than made up for any Comet miscues as he went 7.0 innings in his third start of the season, allowing just three hits with six strikeouts. With the win, he is 1-1 on the season with a 1.62 earned run average.
The Comets jumped on HSU starter John Clift for two runs in the 2nd inning. A
Hunter Cheek walk and
Chandler Boyd single put runners on the corners before catcher
Deylan Moreno brought Cheek home on an HSU fielding error and
Isaiah Swann scored Boyd on a deep double to center field. The rally was squelched, however, with an inning-ending double play.
UTD added a single run in the third after a leadoff single from
A.J. Liu, who scored on a Boyd fielder's choice before the Comets loaded the bases again only to leave all three stranded. Freshman
Connor Allred led off the 5th with a triple and scored on an RBI single down the right field line by Moreno to increase the lead to 4-0.
The Comets began to pull away in the 6th when they led off with a
Luke Richter single and two hit batters before Boyd delivered a 2-RBI single to left center. They added two more in the 7th when
Jacob Perry (who had four stolen bases in the game) reached on an error, stole second and third and scored on Liu triple to the right center. Richter followed with a double to left to score Liu.
In the HSU 8th, reliever Blake Devalerio was greeted with a couple of hard luck singles that found their way through the infield, and a pair of UTD errors that allowed the Cowboys to cut the lead in half, 8-4. The Comets got one back in their half of the frame with a Moreno double and a sacrifice fly from Perry.
Liu (3-for-5) and Richter (4-for-5) finished the game with seven hits, while Boyd and Moreno had two hits each and combined for five RBI.
