Crusaders Baseball Jumps Out on Southwestern for Sunday's Win
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas Crusaders baseball team ended their series finale against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) opponent Southwestern University with a victory on Saturday. In a game that featured a lot of offensive fireworks, the Crusaders prevailed in a shootout with the Pirates 17-10. Dallas 18 hits in game three, which included a multi-hit game by six different Crusaders. The victory of the Pirates is UD's first win at home versus Southwestern since 2017.
(Game Information)
Team Scores: Southwestern (10) Dallas (17)
Team Records: Southwestern (7-10) Dallas (5-10)
Pitcher Records: W) Graeme Williams (1-1), L) JJ Slack (0-3)
The scoring was started off by Dallas in the bottom of the first inning. Dallas put their first men on base and scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch. With runners on second and third and one out, Grady Birmingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) singled to left field for two RBIs. After Dallas reloaded the bases, Maverick Martinez (Friendswood, Texas) walked in a run to put UD up 4-0.
In the top of the second, the Pirates got their first run on the board as Preston Witt homered to right center field.
In the bottom of the second, Dallas loaded the bases again and with one out Zach Taylor (Humble, Texas) singled to right field to score a run. Jon Talley (Pineville, La.) followed with a walk to score another run and extend the lead to 6-1.
In the top of the fourth, Daniel Montgomery hit a long opposite field home run to right center field that hit the top of the roof of the Crusader bullpen and bounced into the road.
In the bottom of the inning, Dallas loaded the bases again and with two outs Tyler Darnell (Southlake, Texas) singled to left to drive in a run. The next batter, Joe Vondrachek (North St. Paul, Minn.) hit a base clearing double to left field to put UD up 10-2. Casey White (Amorita, Okla.) then singled up the middle to score Vondrachek, and then Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas) followed with a double to center to score White.
In the top of the fifth, Southwestern loaded the bases for the first time in the game. With one out, Witt drew a walk to drive in a run. After Graeme Williams (Frisco, Texas) relieved starter Ryan Flores (San Diego, Calif.), Montgomery hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Lance Kruse, and then Landon Durdin ended the inning grounding into a fielder's choice.
Dallas got one run back in the bottom of the inning, as Martinez drove in a run on a fielder's choice.
In the top of the sixth, Southwestern scored a run on an error by center fielder Birmingham. The Pirates scored a second run in the inning on an RBI double by Maxwell Mims to make the score 13-6.
Both teams scored a run in the seventh inning. In the top of the inning, Jake Harris hit an RBI single to center, and in the bottom of the inning, Talley hit an RBI double to right center.
In the top of the eighth, Southwestern scored a run on another error by center fielder Birmingham to bring the score to 14-8.
In the bottom of the inning, Ross Lowe (Lewisville, Texas) got his first hit of the day with an RBI single to right field. Two batters later with the bases loaded again, Taylor hit a sacrifice fly to right field. Lowe scored the final run of the game for Dallas during the next at-bat on a wild pitch to put the score at 17-8.
In the top of the ninth, Jake Harris hit the third solo home run of the game for Southwestern as he hammered the ball over the wall to right center field. With two outs, Jacob Tanner singled to left center field for an RBI and the field run of the game. Witt followed with a fly out to center and ended the game with a final score of 17-10.
For the second game in a row, Dallas successfully committed a double steal. Vondrachek was the lead runner in both double steals, and with his stolen base Vondrachek now has 10 stolen bases in 2021 and moves into sole possession of second place among SCAC base stealers this season.
Dallas stole seven total bases in the series against Southwestern, which is the most against one team for UD this season.
The three home runs by Southwestern is a single game high in 2021, with their previous best being two home runs against Texas Lutheran University back on March 5.
Taylor reached base safely in all six plate appearances for UD, going 4-4 with a double, two RBIs, two runs scored, a walk and a sac fly.
The six Crusaders who had multiple hits in the game were Taylor, Patton, Birmingham, Vondrachek, White and Darnell.
In the first five innings, Dallas sent 10 men up to the plate in two different innings, sent 37 men up to the plate by the end of the fifth inning and loaded the bases four times. UD loaded the bases a fifth time in the eighth inning.
Vondrachek had five at-bats over the first five innings of the game, and White and Patton had an at-bat in each of the first four innings. White was also the only Crusader to have a hit in each game of the series.
With the win, Dallas improves to 5-10 (3-3), and with the loss Southwestern drops to 7-10 (4-2). Dallas travels to Shreveport this weekend to continue their SCAC schedule and will play Centenary College of Louisiana. Game times will be on Friday and Saturday, April 2 and 3, at 12:00 and 3:00 p.m. on Friday and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.