MARSHALL, TX (05.13.22) – Faced once again with potential season-ending elimination, the UT Dallas baseball team rallied with three late runs Friday afternoon to force the American Southwest Conference championship series to a deciding Game 3 with a 8-6 win over East Texas Baptist at Wood Field.
The Comets (33-14) and Tigers (33-12) will meet for the ASC Championship in a 1 pm game Saturday afternoon. UTD is the defending ASC champs and ETBU is looking for its first league title ever.
The Comets trailed the hard-hitting Tigers 6-5 after four innings and ETBU had ace Salyers Collins gunning for an ASC strikeout record on the mound. Collins eventually added six K's to his record-setting total in a 7.0-inning start, but also surrendered four walks, all in a five-run 2
nd inning that got the Comets back in the game early.
After ETBU (playing as the visitor in Game 2) scored in each of its first two innings, Moreno tied the score at 3-3 with a home run that followed back-to-back walks to
Andrew Skivington and
Marcos Villegas. Another walk and two singles loaded up the bases for an RBI hit from
Ramon Garza and a sacrifice fly from
A.J. Liu to give UTD a 5-3 lead after two innings.
The Tigers came back, though, and retook the lead at 6-5 while Collins again silenced the Comet bats for three straight shutdown frames. But, UTD went back to work in the 7th. Garza tied the game with a shot over the left field wall that barely cleared the glove of the Tiger left fielder. One out later, UTD was back in front, 7-6, when
Marcos Villegas followed with the second home run of the inning, ending the day for Collins.
UTD then got an important insurance run in the 8
th with some textbook hitting from
Keagan Vance, who directed a ground ball to the right side with
Hunter Cheek charging from third. Cheek was able to slide in under the tag and the Comets were at an 8-6 advantage with just three outs to go for ETBU.
Closer
Orion Drymond finished off the last 1.1 innings for UTD, giving up just one hit on his way to a UTD record-setting 11
th save.
Joshua Wood (3-1) took over for starter
Carter Cochrane after four innings and threw three scoreless frames for the win.
The Comets were out-hit, 12-7, by the Tigers, but made the most of their opportunities. Garza was the only UTD hitter with multiple hits, going 3-for-5.