Howard Payne walks off against Dallas in 10
BROWNWOOD, Texas - The University of Dallas baseball team played the first game of their three game series against Howard Payne University on Friday. After leading most of the game, Dallas surrendered a game tying two run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and fell into a 6-6 tie. In the bottom of the 10th, Yellow Jacket shortstop Joey Villarreal singled in second baseman Carson Wert to win the game for Howard Payne, 7-6.
(Game 1 Information F/10)
Team Scores: Dallas (6) Howard Payne (7)
Team Records: Dallas (1-4) Howard Payne (2-7)
Pitcher Records: W) Cody Leal (1-0), L) Jon Talley (0-1)
In the 2nd inning, UD designated hitter Zach Salomon (Oklahoma City, Okla.) reached first on an RBI fielder's choice that scored shortstop Michael Jaquez (Irving, Texas). In the bottom of the inning, Howard Payne answered back on a similar play as left fielder Trevor Fletcher reached on an RBI fielder's choice that scored right fielder Nolyn Box.
In the top of the 3rd, Dallas loaded the bases with nobody out on a single by third baseman Joseph Vondrachek (North St. Paul, Minn.), and bunt single by center fielder Michael Anderson (Denver, Colo.) and a hit by pitch by second baseman Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas). UD would only score one run in the inning as first baseman Zach Taylor (Humble, Texas) hit a sacrifice fly to right field to put Dallas ahead 2-1.
Dallas struck for two more in the top of the fifth Taylor hit a two-out, RBI triple to left center to score Vondrachek, and Jaquez hit an RBI single to score Taylor.
UD starter Conrad Voss (Corona, Calif.) pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 5th to end his day allowing just one run on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts.
In the 6th inning, Dallas scored another run this time off an error by Wert to score Nicolas Hovde (Waco, Texas) to take a 5-1 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Howard Payne narrowed the gap to 5-4 on an RBI single by catcher Rylee McGee and a two RBI single by center fielder Jonathan McKay.
Graeme Williams (Frisco, Texas) protected the lead with 2.2 innings with a hit and walk allowed and fanned five. Jon Talley (Pineville, La.) recorded the final out in the 8th, but was saddled with the loss after allowing the next three runs to the Yellow Jackets.
In the 9th inning, Dallas scored their final run of the game on another error as pinch hitter Andrew Womack (Vienna, Va.) reached on an error by Wert, which scored Patton. In the bottom of the inning, Howard Payne tied the game on a two out, two run homer by McGee to bring the score to 6-6.
In the bottom of the 10th, Howard Payne put a rally together to win the game as Wert led off with a hit-by-pitch, McKay singled on a bunt and Villarreal singled up the middle to drive in Wert for the final score of 7-6.
With the win, Howard Payne improves to 2-7 and with the loss Dallas falls to 1-4. Dallas will complete the series tomorrow on Saturday with games and 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. CST. The first game of the doubleheader will be a seven inning game.