Baseball hustles for Series-Opening Win; Split with Texas Lutheran Saturday

Baseball hustles for Series-Opening Win; Split with Texas Lutheran Saturday

IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas baseball team claimed a 6-2 victory in game one of a three-game series against Texas Lutheran University on Saturday. The win snapped a seven-game slide for the Crusaders. It was also the team's first win head-to-head versus TLU at home since February 28, 2010. The non-conference series moved to 1-1 in the later contest, as Dallas fell 15-1.


GAME ONE INFORMATION

Final Score: Texas Lutheran University (2), University of Dallas (6)

Records: Texas Lutheran (5-4), Dallas (3-8)

Pitching decisions: W) Hammonds (2-2), L) Baylor (1-1)

It was a scoreless ball game until the sixth inning. The Crusaders broke the tie with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. After Texas Lutheran countered with its lone two runs in the top of the 7th, the home squad matched its previous run total in its next turn at the plate.

In the first big inning for UD, Sophomore Cole Wessling (Denton, Texas) led off with a single, and senior Rene Vargas, Jr. (San Antonio, Texas) worked a walk. A failed attempt at getting Wessling at third on a bunt by freshman Thomas Martin (Vancouver, Wash.) loaded the bases for classmate Mark Peterson (Cincinnati, Ohio).

The third baseman punched an RBI-single to Right Field to break the knotted game. Two batters later, junior Avery Arnold (McKinney, Texas) executed a successful squeeze bunt, and drove in Vargas, Jr. for one RBI. However, Martin hustled around on a heads up play to give the center fielder two ribbies and lift Dallas to a 3-0 edge.

TLU got a pair of runs back off a single down the right field line from Rayce Gatlin.

Up a run, the Navy and White took advantage of a wild pitch, and then Peterson came up with a huge bunt that bounced just out of the pitcher's reach and into no-man's territory behind the mound. Both Martin and Wessling scored.

Junior William Marshall (Frisco, Texas) worked the final two scoreless innings and got his lone strikeout for the final out of the triumph.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

- Peterson went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate and had three RBI. He is the first player to double-digits with 10 ribbies, and extended his team-high.

- Senior Luciano Villanueva (San Antonio, Texas) and junior Zach San Roman (San Antonio, Texas), freshman Josh Abalos (Lewisville, Texas), Wessling, and Martin rounded out the Crusaders' eight hits with one apiece.

- Abalos reached four times by walking a game-high three times. Dallas outdid the Bulldogs 7-0 in that category. UD notched a season-high, four stolen bases. Abalos, Villanueva, Martin, and Peterson all were successful. Dallas did strand 11 runners on base.

- Hammonds got the win in the start, tossing seven innings and allowing two runs (none earned) on seven hits. He fanned a season-high, five batters.

- TLU clobbered 10 hits, but left nine on base.

- Leading the offense by matching a game-high three hits was Keaton Bohrmann. Riley Schaefer picked up a multi-hit game with a 2-for-4 display.

- Lincoln Baylor was saddled in the setback with three runs allowed on six hits in five innings of work. He did face four batters in the sixth before getting replaced by Aaron Milone.

- Baylor and Dylan Drgac each struck out four batters.


GAME TWO INFORMATION

Final Score: Texas Lutheran University (15), University of Dallas (1)

Records: Texas Lutheran (6-4), Dallas (3-9)

Pitching decisions: W) Malinovsky (2-0), L) Felchak (0-5)

Dallas allowed a seven-run third inning to put the team behind early, as the Bulldogs pounded 18 hits and took advantage of seven errors to force a rubber game on Sunday.

Texas Lutheran went up 1-0 in the first inning, with an RBI-single to the left side by Bohrmann that scored Alejandro Gutierrez. Gutierrez had reached by getting hit by a pitch and an out. He moved to scoring position by stealing second and advancing 90 feet on a ground out to the right side.

A crooked inning in the top half of the third was powered by seven hits and three miscues by the Crusaders. 14 hitters in the Black and Gold would come up to the plate in the frame. Gutierrez recorded the first RBI with a single to center. Schaefer, J.T. Gorski, and Eric Rabinowitz all had base hits to the outfield that drove in a run as the gap extended to eight.

From there, the lead grew to double-digits in the fourth. Then a 14-0 score was reflected after six innings, as the Bulldogs tacked four on in their at-bat.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, junior JP Fasone (Englewood, Colo.) came off the bench and broke up the no-hitter at the time with a single to center. Martin followed with a double down the left field line to put two in scoring position. Peterson would add to his run production on the day with a ground out to short stop.

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE

- Abalos was the other Crusader to record a hit, as the team mustered three overall. He did draw one of the team's four free passes, too.

- Freshman Jordan Stickler (Grand Rapids, Mich.) has reached base safely in five of the six games he has come to the plate.

- Martin's double was the only extra base hit for Dallas.

- Junior Blake Palmer (Coppell, Texas), freshman Paul Scioli (Lubbock, Texas), and sophomore Kyle Gamez (Buda, Texas) combined for the last 6.1 innings and went atleast two apiece. Scioli struck out four.

- Schaefer and Gatlin each logged game-highs in hits with three. Gatlin was a perfect 3-for-3. Gorski was part of a quintet of players with two base knocks for TLU. He matched his runs scored with runs-batted-in, tallying three in both columns.

- Ben Marvin, Bohrmann, and Gorski each had a double. Five Bulldogs raced through home plate twice on the evening.

- Nathan Malinovsky went the full nine innings and scattered three hits with the one run. He walked four and punched out eight.

UP NEXT

Series finale is Sunday at 1 p.m.