JACKSON, MS (04.30.22) - The UT Dallas softball team closed the regular season Saturday afternoon with a 5-4 walk-off road loss at league-leading and No. 5-ranrked Belhaven in ASC play.

The Comets (23-17, 15-15 ASC) will serve as the No. 6 seed in next week's ASC Championship, hosted by Belhaven in Cleveland, Miss., on the campus of Delta State University. UTD will open the postseason at 10 a.m. Thursday with a first-round, elimination game against seventh-seeded McMurry.

UTD suffered a walk-off defeat for the second time in the three-game weekend series with the host Blazers, battling with one of the top teams in NCAA D-III throughout the set. Belhaven plated the game-winning run with one-out single in the bottom of the 7th after the Comets knotted the game in the top of the inning.

The Blazers opened the scoring with single runs in each the 1st and 2nd frames to take an early 2-0 lead and added a third run in the 4th to extend their advantage to three scores. UTD got on the board in the top of the 5th with a one-out bases-loaded walk by Jordan Evans and added a second run in the frame on a sacrifice fly by Avery Markley to draw within a run, 3-2.

Belhaven got a run back in the the bottom of the 5th to regain a two-run cushion.

Celeste Soliz opened the Comet's half of the 7th with a solo home run to right field, her third of the season. UTD would tie the game with an RBI groundout by Evans later in the frame, scoring Alexia Mullen.

Ashley Ambrosy closed the game with a 2-for-4 performance from the lead-off spot with her team-leading 20th stolen base of the season. Soliz was 1-for-2 with two runs scored and and RBI.

The Comets will be making the 10th all-time appearance in the ASC Championship and first since 2019. UTD won the league title in 2017.