RICHARDSON, TEXAS (05.06.22) - The UT Dallas baseball team and American Southwest Conference rival Belhaven will meet in the first winner's bracket game of the ASC Red Bracket Tournament Saturday after the Comets used a two-home run 7th inning Friday to power past Concordia Texas, 6-1, in their opening game of the tournament, being played at the UTD Baseball Field.
The Comets (29-12) and the Blazers ((27-14) will meet for the fourth time in the last two weekends with a berth in the Red Bracket title game on the line. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm. Hardin-Simmons, which fell to Belhaven in its opener, 11-4, will meet Concordia in an elimination game at 10 am. A second elimination game is set for 4 pm with the Red Bracket finals scheduled for Sunday.
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Up 1-0 after
Marcos Villegas broke up a scoreless tie in the 6th, scoring on a wild pitch; the Comets got a pair of home runs in the 7th as both
Keagan Vance and
Ramon Garza went deep. By the time Concordia got out of the frame, the Tornados had used three pitchers and UTD had sent 10 hitters to the plate and scored five runs to break the game open.
Over the first five innings, the two teams each threatened, but failed to get on the board. CTX eliminated a couple of UTD threats with double plays in the 1st and 3rd innings. In the 2nd, UTD loaded up the bases with just one out, but failed to cash in. Over the same span, the Tornados stranded five runners of their own, and the Comets got out of a jam in the 2nd inning with their own double play.
But in the 6th, UTD used a walk and a
Deylan Moreno double to get two runners in scoring position with two outs before CTX ace Otto Franz uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Villegas to finally break the scoring drought. In the 7th, Franz gave way to the bullpen and UTD greeted Brady Staedtler with Vance's first home run of the season to make it 2-0. After another walk, CTX made another pitching change and Garza went deep down the left field line, scoring
Jacob Perry.
A.J. Liu followed with a single, and
Andrew Skivington drew a walk. Villegas then singled home Liu and Skivington scored on a ground out.
The Tornados got one run back in the top of the 8th after loading the bases, but reliever
Ryan Vera got a fly ball and two strikeouts to end the rally.
UTD was held to just nine hits with Garza getting credit for two, but CTX pitchers gave free passes to 9 hitters with walks and hit batters.
Carter Cochran (6-3) picked up his 22nd career win - a new UTD career record - throwing the first 6.0 innings.
