Baseball Completes Series Sweep of Austin
April 14, 2024
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas baseball team won their conference matchup against Austin College on Sunday to clinch their third series sweep of the season. They improve to 19-11 overall on the year and 7-7 in conference play.
Dallas 8, Austin 5
WP: Marcelo Carrillo II (3-1)
LP: Barrett Calhoun (0-1)
Collin Johnson made his first career start against the Roos in game three of the series. The sophomore lefty, who had previously not thrown more than three innings in a single outing, went four strong innings, allowing three runs on five hits with six strikeouts and a walk.
The Crusaders took the lead early thanks to the fleet footed Paxton Huff, who led off the game with a double then promptly stole third, the first of four swiped bags in the game, before being brought home on a groundout by Fernando Davila.
It was Huff who incited the next scoring play for Dallas as well. With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, he chopped a grounder to the third baseman and beat the throw by a step for an RBI single, with another run coming in after the ball went right through the first baseman's glove to make it 3-0 Dallas.
The Roos quickly chipped away at the lead with a two run homer in the third, then tied the game on a weak flare to shallow center field in the fourth. The tie didn't last for long, however, as Huff notched his third RBI on the day with a sac fly to give Dallas the lead for good.
In the sixth inning Caleb Hohman made it 6-3 with a two-run homer, his second dinger of the series, then Andrew Gaspar made it 7-3 with a single through the left side. All done with two outs in the inning. The Crusaders added one more insurance run in the eighth to make it 8-3.
Austin managed to score a couple of runs in the top of the ninth on a walk and two doubles, but they were just consolation runs as Dallas held on for the win.
This was the first conference sweep of the season for the Crusaders, their last conference sweep also coming against Austin College last April.
Hohman finished the series 5-for-13 (.385) at the plate with two homers and three RBI.
Huff went 4-for-14 (.286) with a double, three RBI and six stolen bases.
Andrew Gaspar quietly had one of the best series of his career. He played just about perfect defense, starting all three games at shortstop, and went 7-for-11 (.636) at the plate with three RBI.
Up Next
The Crusaders are back on the road next weekend for their penultimate conference series. They will play a three-game series against Trinity starting with a 1:00 pm double header on Saturday, April 20.