ABILENE, Texas - The UT Dallas baseball team started its American Southwest Conference schedule with an 11-1 victory over Hardin-Simmons at Hunter Field Friday night.

The Comets (4-1, 1-0 ASC) outhit the Cowboys (1-6, 0-1) 13-6 and led in walks drawn 5-2. 

Junior Dylan Collins (1-0) picked up his first win at UTD, striking out six and allowing six hits, one run and one walk over seven innings.

UTD got on the board in the top of the first when senior right fielder Luke Finn led off with a walk, stole second, was bunted over by Albert Garza and scored on a Dylan Bivins sacrifice fly.

The game remained 1-0 until the Comets put up six runs in the top of the fifth, taking advantage of three hits and a pair of HSU errors. Bivins hit a two-run homer over the center field fence and designated hitter Grayson Coltharp doubled in a run in the frame. The Cowboys' lone run came on a solo blast from catcher Jett Forrest in the bottom of the fifth.

Finn cracked a solo shot of his own to left center to make the game 7-1 in the sixth. First baseman Zach Landry singled to lead off the seventh and later scored on a Josh Johnson hit up the middle. Landry recorded a sac fly and Johnson had another RBI-single in the eighth to go up 10-1. Garrett Neeley led the ninth off with a single and later scored on a Garza sac fly for the final run of the game.

UT Dallas Notes
- Finn went 2-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season. He also scored four runs and walked twice with a stolen base.
- Garza scored twice with a RBI, sac bunt and a walk.
- Bivins hit his first homer of the season and drove in three runs, giving him a team-leading nine on the year.
- Johnson posted a pair of RBI-singles.
- Neeley and center fielder Lucas Rexin also added a pair of singles and a run scored each.
- Reliever Caleb Vuono threw a scoreless eighth inning, extending his shutout streak to six frames dating back to last season.
- Jake Jennings made his season debut in the ninth, striking out two with a walk in a scoreless outing.

Hardin-Simmons
- The Cowboys had received votes in the preseason D3baseball.com poll.
- Forrest had the only extra-base hit for HSU with the solo home run.
- First baseman Kyler Reed went 2-for-4.
- Center fielder Nick Ellington was 2-for-3.
- Wyatt Tumlinson (0-3) went 4.1 innings, with four hits, three earned runs and three walks allowed while fanning two to take the loss.

Up Next
- UTD and HSU will wrap up the series with a 1 p.m. double-header in Abilene Saturday.