RICHARDSON, TEXAS (04.30.22) - On Senior Day honoring 11 outgoing players and a longtime coach , the UT Dallas baseball team gave up three late runs in another close American Southwest Conference contest and fell 9-7 to Belhaven Saturday at the UTD Baseball Field.
The group, which consisted of six starters, two key pitchers and pitching coach
Terry Tuck (who was ending a 50-year coaching career) were honored in a pre-game presentation.
After that, UTD (28-12, 20-10 ASC) spent the rest of the afternoon trying to hold off - and then play catch up against the Blazers (26-4, 19-11 ASC) before falling with the tying runs on base in the 9th. Belhaven broke open a 6-6 tie with a three-run, four-hit 8th inning. The Comets got one run back in their half of the 8th, and then had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th when the Blazers squelched a rally with a ground out at shortstop.
UTD was out-hit, 11-14, and had to overcome five defensive errors that led to three unearned runs.
Before the Comets even got to bat in the 1st, three hits and the first of the errors put the Blazers up 3-0. But a two-out rally by the Comets in the bottom of the 1st brought four runs home with a three-run
Deylan Moreno home run and a
Zac Vorst single driving in the runs to give the Comets an early 4-3 lead. Belhaven tied the score at 4-4 in the 2nd, but UTD answered to go back in front 5-4 when Skivington delivered a two-out RBI double to score Liu.
Belhaven tied the game again at 5-5 with a run in the top of the 4th, but the Comets countered on a
Ramon Garza solo home run to go back ahead, 6-5. Over the next three scoreless frames, however, the Comets managed just a single hit while Belhaven knotted the score for the third time with a single run in the 5th. Then, things came unravelled in the 8th before UTD answered with a single run in the 8th on doubles from Villegas and
Keagan Vance.
These two teams will likely see each other again next weekend on the UTD field as the Comets will be hosting the ASC's Red Bracket first-round playoff tournament. The four-team, double-elimination tournament is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, May 5-6-7. The Red Bracket Tournament will feature the 2nd-seeded Comets, 3rd-seeded Blazers along with the 6 & 7 seeds in the ASC final standings.
The Red Bracket winner would then advance to the ASC's championship Gold Bracket, best-of-three series the following weekend.
