RICHARDSON, TX (03.08.22) - On a day where the UT Dallas baseball team cracked the Top 10 national rankings for possibly the first time in its 20-year history, the Comets scraped together a bizarre 8-7, non-conference win over Southwestern Tuesday afternoon at the UTD Baseball Complex.

Earlier in the day, the Comets (13-1) were announced as the No. 9 Division III team in the nation in the latest D3baseball.com national rankings, but had to take advantage of some wild Pirate pitching to pull out the victory while managing just five base hits. Southwestern (4-5) hurlers contributed nine walks, five hit batters, three wild pitches and a balk that allowed UTD to rally from deficits three different times in the game and claim the win.

The Comets' deciding run, in fact, scored with two outs in the 7th when UTD loaded the bases on a fielder's choice and a pair of walks, and Ramon Garza took a pitch off his back to force in Deylan Moreno. Prior to that, designated hitter Brayshon Savage had delivered a clutch RBI single through the right side - UTD's only base hit after the 3rd - to tie the score for the third time.

As with most mid-week games, the two teams each sent eight pitchers to the mound before Kenny Garza (1-0) picked up the win for UTD with a perfect 8th; and closer Orion Drymond finished things out for his sixth save of the season. The bizarre game even ended with a bizarre play as Southwestern's Jake Harris got a two-out, bad-hop single past first base, but was called out on interference when he and the Pirate first base coach collided.

The game started just as bizarrely after Southwestern jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a four-hit 1st before the Comets ever came to bat. But UTD got one run back when Jacob Perry led off with a triple - the only UTD base hit of the 1st inning - and scored on an A.J. Liu sacrifice fly. After the Pirates made it 3-1 with another tally in the 2nd, the Comets were gifted two walks and a hit batter to load the bases in their half of the inning, and tied the score at 3-3 after another sacrifice fly and a passed ball.

Southwestern then doubled the score to take a 6-3 lead in the 3rd with a three-hit inning, but the Comet bats finally put together a cluster of hits to tie the score again after RBI hits from Moreno and Keagan Vance.

After 10 combined hits and seven walks through the first three innings, however, the pitching took over. Five Southwestern pitchers only allowed the Savage base hit the rest of the way. Meanwhile, UTD hurlers allowed just one more run while striking out eight of 11 Pirate hitters from the 4th inning on.

The Comets head to Florida this weekend for four games in three days, starting with a Friday afternoon matchup with Wheaton (MA) at 4:30. UTD returns to American Southwest Conference play March 18-19 in Belton against Mary Hardin-Baylor.