OTHER TOURNAMENT STORIES: Mississippi College | Texas Lutheran
CLINTON, MS - The UT Dallas baseball team's fifth bid to become American Southwest Conference champions in the last seven years came up just short once again as the UT Tyler Patriots rallied back from two early Comet leads to ease past UTD, 4-3, in the semifinal game of the 2009 ASC Championship Tournament.
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The nationally-ranked Patriots (36-10) battled back from early 2-0 and 3-2 UTD leads to tie the game up twice on a pair of home runs from Jared Hood, then won the game in the 8th when Paige Hodges singled home Chad Dalieden with what turned out to be the winning run. Tyler relief ace Beau Ziegler pitched his way out of a UTD threat in the 7th, then shut the Comets down in the final two innings to claim the win, ending what had been a galant effort by the Comets to return to the title game.
UT-Tyler took advantage of the victory, knocking off Mississippi College twice Sunday (16-2 and 8-5) to win their first ASC championship.
UTD's loss in the semifinals overshadowed a strong starting performance from senior lefthander
Damion Chelakis, who pitched 7.1 innings and did not allow a hit until the 4th. Chelakis made very few mistakes, striking out 8 UTT batters along the way, but Hood kept Tyler in the game with a two-run home run in the 4th and a solo shot in the 7th.
Mason Thompson finished the game with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, but the Comets couldn't solve Ziegler in the end.
UTD got its first two runs of the game in the 2nd when Tyler starter Lex Wolfe hit
Jared Smith, then gave up a single to
Adam Hudec. Smith scored the game's first run on a sacrifice fly from
Jake Eisman, then Hudec scampered home when Tyler third baseman Paige Hodges booted a ground ball off the bat of
Jacob Starnes. A second error on Hodges loaded the bases, but the Comets couldn't get past Wolfe to add to the lead.
After Hood had tied the score in the top of the 4th, UTD regained the lead at 3-2 on a solo home run just inside the leftfield foul pole by
Chris Biguenet and Chelakis looked like he might make that stand up. But Tyler started off the 8th with Dalieden's base hit and he scored just two batters later to give the Patriots the lead that Ziegler would hold to pick up the win.
UTD had a chance to tie up the game in the 7th when Ziegler came on. With Randy Lorber already on base,
Cody Ross greeted Ziegler with a single to put runners at first and second with just one out. But Jared Smith lined out to Hodges at third and Ross was doubled up after breaking from first base on contact.
UTD's season is presumably over at 28-18, though the Comets will await a possible at-large bid into the national NCAA Division III playoffs.
Ross and Biguenet were selected for the All-Tournament team.
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