RICHARDSON, TX (05.06.21) - The top-seeded UT Dallas baseball team pulled away late for an 11-4 win over LeTourneau Thursday afternoon to open the Blue Bracket of the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament, held at the UTD Baseball Field.

ASC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

The Comets (now 25-10) used a pair of four-run innings to advance to Friday's winners' bracket match up with No. 5-seeded Mary Hardin-Baylor at 1 p.m. Eight-seeded LETU (now 15-21) will face elimination at 10 a.m. Friday against No. 4-seed Concordia Texas, which dropped a 6-3 decision to UMHB to open Thursday's games.

Carter Cochrane improved to 9-0 this spring while the Comet offense supplied 17 hits in what turned out to be a lop-sided victory over LETU. UTD led the YellowJackets by just three runs, 6-3, after six innings, but tacked on five late runs to collect its fifth straight victory.

LETU opened the scoring with a single run in the top of the 2nd but Daniel Zamora evened the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the frame, his team-leading ninth long ball of the spring. A.J. Liu would give the Comets their first lead of the day in the 3rd on an RBI groundout to third base, scoring Jacob Perry.

The YellowJackets responded with a run in the top of the 4th to knot the contest, 2-2, before Perry and Liu each used two-out, two-run singles in the bottom of the 4th to lift UTD to a 6-2 cushion.

LETU got a run back in the 6th to cut the Comet lead to three runs, but Nick Balley got the run back with a bases-loaded RBI groundout to shortstop, scoring Deylan Moreno. Moreno would later add a three-run homer in the bottom of the 8th, his fourth of the season, and Balley added another RBI later in the frame on a double to left center, scoring Marcos Villegas.

The YellowJackets added one final run in the top of the 9th.

Cochrane gave up three earned run on eight hits in 6.0 innings of work, striking out. The Comets would then use four relief pitchers to wrap up the contest with Brandon Bane recording the final out in the 9th.

Perry was 3-for-4 from the lead-off spot, collecting hits on his first three at bats of the game to help the Comets set the tone offensively. He would later draw an intentional walk with runners on second and third. Liu and Moreno were each 3-for-5 while Balley, Garza and Villegas each had multi-hit performances.