GEORGETOWN, Texas — The Southwestern Pirates baseball team jumped to an early lead but could not maintain it, losing 7-6 to the University of Texas at Dallas Comets.
Southwestern opened the game with a three-up, three-down defensive inning in the top of the first and carried the momentum to the plate. Leadoff hitter Hayden Craig drew a walk, and Lance Kruse followed with a triple to right-center for the RBI.
After a Daniel Montgomery Jr. groundout, Preston Witt drew a walk, and Maxwell Mims followed with an RBI-single to right field, scoring Kruse and moving Witt to second. Jacob Tanner followed with a single to right field to load the bases, and Bryce Debbs drew a walk to score Witt. Trent Raschke then grounded out to shortstop, scoring Mims to open a 4-0 lead.
The University of Texas at Dallas limited most of the Southwestern damage to that inning, slowly whittling away at the lead over the next six innings.
Sophomore pitcher Trey Dees was solid in his first start over the first five innings, surrendering six hits and three earned runs with three strikeouts and no walks. Dees struck out the first two hitters he faced in the top of the second, but Marcos Villegas singled up the middle and eventually advanced to third on a wild pitch, setting up a Nick Balley RBI-single to left.
In the top of the third, UT-Dallas strung together three consecutive hits with two out, punctuated by Zac Vorst's RBI infield single to score Kenny Garza and cut the Southwestern lead to 4-2.
Vorst tripled to lead off the top of the sixth, ending Dees' night with Cole Johnson taking the mound in relief. Johnson induced a groundout and walked Villegas before Balley laid down a sacrifice bunt, scoring Vorst. Villegas was thrown out trying to advance to third.
Southwestern fell apart in the seventh, committing two errors and hitting one batter to surrender three runs on just one hit with one sacrifice fly to fall behind 6-4. Mathew Escamilla pinch-hit for Raschke in the bottom of the eighth and delivered with an RBI-single to left, scoring Tanner to leave the inning down 6-5.
Orion Drymond took the mound for UT-Dallas in the bottom of the ninth and was dominant, striking out two and inducing a fly out to pick up the save.
Southwestern dropped to 0-5 with the loss, and UT-Dallas improved to 3-1. The Pirates will travel to face Texas Lutheran on Friday and host Texas Lutheran in a doubleheader on Saturday.
