STEPHENVILLE – After falling behind early, Tarleton made a furious push to close the gap but ultimately fell short to UT Arlington, 7-5, at Clay Gould Ballpark on Tuesday evening.
UTA (12-29) drew first blood as they brought four runs home in the first inning. Tarleton (13-27) staring pitcher Riley Boyd (L, 1-4) was chased in the first. He began the game with a strikeout, but then allowed six straight batters to reach base via five singles and a hit by pitch. Boyd’s final line was 0.1 inning pitched, four runs on five hits and one strikeout.
Zach Poe entered for Boyd and worked his way out of a jam by picking off a runner at second and forcing an infield pop out for the third out. He went on to pitch the second inning, keeping the Mavericks off the scoreboard.
UTA added two more runs in the third to stretch their lead to 6-0. They benefitted from an error and two walks. Beau Ross threw the third and allowed two runs – one earned – on two hits.
The fourth inning is when things got interesting. Tarleton batted around their order, scoring five runs on five hits. The inning was led off when Jake Escalon hit a towering solo home run over the trees behind left field.
Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo, Taylor Daniell and Spencer Bloom followed that up with consecutive singles, with Bloom scoring Choy Foo to make it 6-2.
Bryan Aguilar then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up a base. Trace Morrison walked to load the bases and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera walked to score Daniell and make it 6-3.
Alec Williams hit an RBI fielder’s choice to the shortstop and London green singled up the middle to score Morrison and just like that, the Texans were trailing by a lone run.
Zane Badmaev entered to pitch the fourth and proceeded to throw three shutout innings, striking out a career high five Mavericks while allowing just two hits.
The Texans were held scoreless throughout the rest of the game. Thomas-Rivera hit a one out triple to left-center field but the Texans stranded him.
UTA’s Trevor Pruitt (W, 1-0) earned the win as he threw 2.1 scoreless innings, from the fourth to the end of the sixth. The Mavericks tacked on an insurance run in the seventh to make it 7-5.
They were led offensively by Nick Pierce, Zach Henry and Sam Crowell who all had two hits. Steven Saunders pitched in two RBI. Their starting pitcher, Cade Citelli, threw 3.0 innings allowing no runs on two hits to go with three strikeouts.
Tarleton was led by Bloom who finished with three hits and an RBI. Choy Foo and Daniell each contributed two hits.
The Texans will play again at 7 p.m. CT on Friday as they open a three-game set with UTRGV. The games will be streamed on ESPN+.
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