San Marcos, Texas – The No. 7 seed UT Arlington used two home runs late in the game to power it to a 4-2 upset win in the first round of the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship against No. 2 seed South Alabama.
UT Arlington (30-26) advances to face another upset winner in No. 6 seed Georgia Southern on Thursday at 4 p.m. CT at Bobcat Ballpark. The Eagles defeated No. 3 seed Little Rock by a 13-4 margin in the first game of the day. South Alabama (38-19) faces an elimination game against Little Rock at 9 a.m. CT on Thursday morning.
Junior Quintin Rohrbaugh led the Mavericks with a 2-for-3, two run and two RBI effort in the game. Senior Cody Farrell blasted his second home run of the season.
South Alabama began the scoring in the bottom of the first when senior Danny Martinez singled home sophomore Jared Barnes.
UT Arlington got on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Rohrbaugh doubled to right center to plate sophomore RJ Williams, who drew a one-out walk.
USA tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth when freshman Carter Perkins singled home classmate Brendan Donovan.
Rohrbaugh homered to lead off the top of the seventh inning and Farrell homered to lead off the eighth to give the Mavericks the lead for good. Freshman Josh Minjarez added an insurance run when he singled down the right field line to plate Rohrbaugh.
The 2016 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship continues on Wednesday with two more games from Bobcat Ballpark on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.