CLINTON, MS (05.02.09) - The UT Dallas baseball team
found its missing offense Saturday afternoon and is still alive in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament, rallying for a 10-7 win over Texas Lutheran in a 10-inning elimination game.
UTD's Johnnie Martinez launched a three-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to save the Comets, who had blown an early 6-2 lead. The win sends UTD to the tournament semifinals against the loser of Mississippi College and UT-Tyler at 7 pm Saturday night. (LISTEN LIVE)
UTD dominated the elimination game completely in the early innings, but found itself with the outcome in balance in the bottom of the 9th when TLU rallied to tie the score with three runs and ended the inning with the potential game-winning run on third base. The Comets (28-17), who had pounded 16 hits and led throughout the first nine innings, got a heart-wrenching reprieve in the 9th when reliever Mason Thompson struck out TLU's Andrew Femath to end the TLU rally. UTD then got two runners aboard in the 10th before Martinez sent the first pitch he saw from TLU's Jeremiah Steinert over the rightfield wall for the deciding runs.
The dramatic win overshadowed the best start of the season from surprise starter Brandon Dinwiddie, who had given up just four hits (three of them home runs) to the Bulldogs through the first eight innings.
With a seemingly safe three-run lead in the 9th, however, things got interesting. Dinwiddie was touched for a single and double and was replaced by Thompson with one out. A groundout scored one of the runners, but UTD still had a two-run advantage needing just one out to end the game. Thompson, however, walked the next hitter, then threw a wild pitch that allowed TLU to score another run and cut the lead to 7-6 with the potential tying run at second base.
TLU leadoff hitter Kyle Harvey then singled sharply to shallow right field. UTD's Jake Eisman charged in to scoop up the ball for a potential throw to the plate, but the ball skidded under his glove, allowing the tying run to score and Harvey to race all the way to third base, just 90 feet away from winning the game for the Bulldogs. Thompson then got the strikeout he needed to end the threat and set the stage for Martinez' 10th-inning heroics.
The Comets took a 2-0 lead in the third on two hits, then went up 3-2 in the 5th with an RBI double from Eisman. UTD apparently put the game comfortably away in the 8th with a 2-RBI single from Cody Ross, then an RBI single from Jacob Starnes in the 9th, but TLU battled back to tie the score with the dramatic 9th.
UTD had numerous opportunities early in the game to add to their lead, but stranded 14 runners in the first nine innings, most in scoring position.
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