STATESBORO, Ga. – Three Arkansas State pitchers combined to check UTA in four hits, and the Red Wolves pushed across three runs in the seventh inning in taking an upset 4-2 win over the Mavericks here Friday in the second quarterfinal of the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championships.
The seventh-seeded Red Wolves (28-26), who had been swept in their three-game regular-season series with UTA, broke a 1-1 tie with three runs on four hits in the seventh off Maverick starter Trae Patterson (7-4) and reliever Austin Gardner.
Senior relief pitcher Tyler Zuber (6-1) gave up two hits and a run in the eighth inning, but retired the final five batters he faced to send the Red Wolves into Saturday’s 3 p.m. semifinal against South Alabama. USA had taken a 9-1 victory over Troy in Friday’s opening game.
Arkansas State had rolled to a 21-4 victory over Little Rock in Thursday’s opening round, and continued its offensive attack in out-hitting UTA 9-4. The Red Wolves have scored 53 runs in their last four games including two to end the regular season and two tournament games, and became the first lower-seeded team to win a Sun Belt Tournament game this season.
The Red Wolves have also won at least two Sun Belt tournament games for a league-high eight straight years.
Second-seeded UTA, the West Division champions, had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when A-State starter Peyton Culbertson walked leadoff hitter Zac Cook, Omar Salinas singled and Will Olson and Quinton Rohrbaugh both drew walks to force across a run.
Arkansas State made a quick pitching change and went to Tyler Mitzel, who got a strikeout and a popup with the bases loaded and then faced the minimum over the next four innings. UTA’s R J Williams singled and Salinas was hit by a pitch to open the sixth, but with one out Zuber came on to get the final two outs.
By that time, Arkansas State had tied the game in the second off Patterson on a leadoff double by Alex Howard and an RBI single from Derek Birginske. But Patterson retired the next five batters he faced, and later retired eight in a row before Jeremy Brown led off the seventh with a single up the middle.
Birginske forced Brown with an infield ground ball, but Drew Tipton doubled and Grant Hawkins plated Birginske with a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead. Garrett Rucker, who had struck out in his previous three at bats, singled up the middle to score Tipton, and a third run in the inning scored when UTA right fielder Aaron Funk lost Joe Schrimpf’s fly ball and it fell in for a triple that scored Rucker for a 4-1 advantage.
The Mavericks got one back in the eighth when Cook and Williams had leadoff singles and Rohrbaugh scored Cook with a one-out fly ball. But Zuber struck out Noah Vaughan to end the inning and retired three in a row in the ninth.