April 18, 2008

Final Stats

ARLINGTON, Texas - - Ryan Robinson said it was only a matter of time before the UT Arlington offense came alive in Friday's game against Southeastern Louisiana.

"I just had to keep putting up zeros, because that's what the other guy was doing," Robinson said.

The other guy was Southeastern Louisiana starter Brent Varnado.

Robinson and Varnado battled in an old-fashioned pitching dual until the Mavericks put up two runs in the bottom of the seventh and held on for a 2-1 victory in a Southland Conference game at Clay Gould Ballpark. UTA not only opened Game 1 of the series with a victory, the Mavericks (18-20, 9-7) won for the sixth consecutive time and 11th time in their past 13 games.

Southeastern (19-17, 8-8) and UTA resume the series with Game 2 on Saturday. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.

"That was good baseball, a typical Friday night with two lefties pitching really well," UTA coach Darin Thomas said. "That's the best Ryan has pitched all year and, eventually, our offense got timely hits and came through. That's a good win to start the series."

For a while, it looked like the Mavericks might be beaten by a bloop single barely over the outstretched glove of Mavericks first baseman David McLeod. That's how Southeastern scored the game's only run through the first six-plus innings while both pitchers battled out of jams and held the offense quiet.

That changed in the bottom of the seventh when McLeod ripped a line drive to left off Varnado (0-2), giving UTA its eighth hit of the game. To that point, the Mavericks had left eight men on base. This time, the timely hitting of of UTA's recent hot streak came back. A one-out Matt Otteman double scored McLeod from first to tie the game, and a single up the middle by UTA freshman outfielder Michael Choice put the Mavericks up 2-1.

Right-hander Ryan Collins escaped further damage by getting a strikeout. The Mavericks had a 2-1 lead, however, and they had outhit the Lions to that point, 11-6.

Robinson (4-3) took his effective changeup and precision back to the mound for the top of the eighth and got some help from his defense.

With one out, Matthew Schexnayder lined a shot to right field and tried to stretch it to a double. Otteman came up throwing, and tag was in time for the out.

"I was throwing the changeup 50 or 60 percent of the time, and it was working really well for setting up the fastball," Robinson said. "Our guys played great defense, and I know the guys would eventually give us some runs."

With three outs to go for the victory, Robinson allowed a runner with one out, then got Xavier Qualls to strike out swinging. That's when the Mavericks looked to freshman right-hander Marcus Limon (5) to get the final out. After a steal put the tying run on second, Limon hit Josh Cryer to put runners on first and second. Both runners stole to put the go-ahead run on second.

Not to worry, though, because Limon got Chris Ernest on a strikeout to end the game.