RICHARDSON, TX (05.07.21) - Marcos Villegas placed a perfect squeeze bunt with one out in the bottom of the 8th inning to propel the regionally ranked UT Dallas baseball team to a 5-4 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor Friday and a spot in Saturday's championship game of the Blue Bracket of the American Southwest Conference Baseball Championship Tournament, hosted by the Comets at the UTD Baseball Field.
ASC TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
The top-seeded Comets (now 26-10) are now just one win away from a spot in the ASC Championship Series, May 13-15, and will face Concordia Texas at 1 p.m. Saturday to potentially close out the Blue Bracket with a 3-0 record. With a loss to the Tornados Saturday, the two teams would play the "if necessary" game 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first contest.
The fifth-seeded Cru opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd with a two-run homer by Malek Bolin, but UTD would respond with four runs in the bottom of the 4th take control of the contest. The Comets opened the 4th with a single to right and a stolen base by
Jacob Perry. Perry then scored on a
Ramon Garza single through the right side to cut the UMHB lead to 2-1. After a Cru error, giving runners on first and second, Garza and
A.J. Liu was moved up 90 feet with a sacrifice bunt by
Zac Vorst.
Deylan Moreno then lifted the Comets to their first lead of the day, 3-2. with a two-run single up the middle. Moreno would later score in the 4th on a
Daniel Zamora single to left.
UMHB would answer with a single run in the 7th and knotted the game, 4-4, in the top of the 8th on an RBI single by Dawson Shibley. Liu opened the Comets' half of the 8th with a single to center and advanced to second base on a ground out by Vorst. After a Cru wild pitch, giving the Comets runners at second and third, Villegas gave the Comets the lead for good with bunt that hugged the first base line, allowing Liu to score the game-winning run.
Comet starter
Blake Birdwell did not factor into the decision but tossed a solid 6.0 innings, giving up just two runs on eight hits with a strikeout.
Ben Soule (2-0) would pick up the win in relief, pitching 1.1 innings before giving way to closer
Orion Drymond, who collected his fourth save of the spring.
Moreno was 2-for-3 with two RBI while Perry finished 2-for-4, extending his hitting streak to 15 straight games.
After a tournament-opening 6-3 loss to UMHB, Concordia Texas clawed its way to the Blue Bracket title game with two wins in eliminations games on Friday. The No. 4-seeded Tornados (21-12) run-ruled eight-seed LeTourneau, 11-1, in eight innings to open Friday's play before holding off UMHB, 6-1, in Friday's late game to eliminate the Cru.
