RICHARDSON, TX (05.22.22) – All season long, the UT Dallas baseball team has relied on its powerful offensive attack on the way to a school-record 35 wins, back-to-back American Southwest Conference championships, and the NCAA post-season for the second year in a row.
But in Trinity University, the Comets' best-of-five 2022 NCAA regional series opponent, they may have met their match.
The Tigers of Trinity University (35-11), who were among the nation's top offensive teams all season long, came to the UTD campus this weekend, and finished off the Comets (35-17) Sunday afternoon with an emphatic 21-13 win. In four games, the Tigers scored 55 runs and lashed out 63 hits.
Less than 24 hours after UTD posted several big innings of its own on the way to a record-setting 32-9 win in Game 3 of the series, it was the Tigers who turned the tide with a 13-run 6
th inning that all but decided the outcome of Game 4 and the series. The rally came moments after the Comets had rallied to take their first lead of the deciding game.
The Comets gave up a five-run 1
st inning to the Tigers, but chipped away and took an 8-7 lead with a four-run 5
th. But before Trinity was done in their half of the next inning, the Tigers had sent 17 batters to the plate, collected seven hits (including a grand slam home run), five walks, one hit batter and a Comet error to score 13 times and put the game at an insurmountable 20-8 advantage.
UTD did outscore the Tigers 5-1 the rest of the way, but could not make up the deficit.
The loss ended the Comets' season as well as the UTD careers of a number of key players including
A.J. Liu,
Ramon Garza,
Jacob Perry,
Marcos Villegas,
Hunter Cheek, Carter Cochran,
Orion Drymond,
Deylan Moreno,
Nick Balley and
Zac Vorst.
Trinity jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the final game, putting together three doubles and a home run in the top of the 1
st. Villegas drove home Perry to get one back in the 1
st, then UTD pulled within 6-4 in the 2
ndwith an RBI hit from
Keagan Vance, a bases-loaded walk drawn by Liu and a sacrifice fly.
Andrew Skivington, Moreno and Cheek drew walks to start the four-run 5
th. A hit batter and another walk forced in two runs and Perry and Garza each had RBIs to give the Comets the brief 8-7 lead.
The Comets got single runs back in the 6
th and 8
th before using four walks and a Balley RBI single to score the final three runs.
UTD did collect 11 hits in the losing effort and worked 14 walks and two hit batters. But the Comets stranded 14 baserunners in the game that lasted over four hours. Villegas and Balley each had a pair of hits while all nine starters collected at least one hit. Balley was credited with four RBI.
