MAVERICKS POUR ON THE OFFENSE AGAINST STEPHEN F. AUSTIN, 13-5

Michael Choice goes 4-for-5 and Ryan Martin earns the win in relief.

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Michael Choice went 4-for-5 with a homer on Saturday.
 
Michael Choice went 4-for-5 with a homer on Saturday.
  

May 10, 2008

Final Stats

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - - UT Arlington scored six runs in the eighth inning, got a splendid relief pitching performance from Ryan Martin and suddenly turned their fortunes around Saturday with a 13-5 victory against Stephen F. Austin at Jaycees Field in Nacogdoches.

The victory gives UTA a 2 ½ game lead against SFA with four games remaining in the season as teams battled for postseason position.

UTA and SFA return to action at 1 p.m. Sunday in the final game of the series.

Five UTA players had at least two hits on Saturday.

Freshman outfielder Michael Choice led the way with a 4-for-5 day. He had a homer and four runs batted in. Brock Wilson drove in three runs from the leadoff spot, and David McLeod added two hits and two RBI.

The hitting barrage - UTA had 15 total hits - made a winner of Martin (1-0).

The right-hander entered the game in relief and was asked to hold a 6-5 lead. He held the Lumberjacks scoreless in the final five innings. UTA (22-28, 13-13) made it 7-5 with a run in the seventh and put the game away when Steffan Guest led the inning with a single and was sacrificed over by Jeff Storms. What followed was hitting UTA hasn't seen a while. Six of the next seven batters earned singles - the other one in that string, Jay Pitschka, was hit by a pitch. By the end of it, UTA had turned a 7-5 lead to 13-5.

The Mavericks made it clear early to SFA (23-26, 10-15) early that Saturday was going to be different than Friday's 7-2 loss.

After a McLeod walk, Choice homered to left to give the Mavericks a 2-0 lead off Lumberjacks starter Erik Gregersen (1-3).

 

 

In the second, the Mavericks kept it going. Chad Comer started it with a one-out single to right, and Ryan Davis drew a walk to put two runners on. Consecutive run-scoring singles by Pitschka and Wilson put the Mavericks up 4-0. The Mavericks then caught a break. McLeod hit a potentially inning-ending grounder to shortstop. The underhand flip to get the force at second was perfect, but SFA second baseman Noel Trevino threw over the first baseman's head.

Instead of the inning being over, UTA scored again to take a 5-0 lead and knock Gregersen. Choice followed with a single to left, and the Mavericks were up by six runs.

SFA answered in the second with two runs off Long, getting four singles in the inning, including a bunt for a hit and slow roller to second.

The Lumberjacks got back into the game with three in the fourth. Consecutive singles put two runners on, and Kevin Crabtree followed with a homer to left to make it 6-5. That was the end of the day for long as Mavericks coach Darin Thomas looked to reliever Martin to hold the lead.

It became a pitching battle between long relievers - Martin for UTA and Erich Lehman for SFA.

Both pitchers held their opponents scoreless in the fifth and sixth before UTA came up with an insurance run. Davis led the seventh with a double down the left-field line. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Pitschka. Wilson's ground ball drove him in to put UTA up, 7-5.