ARLINGTON, Texas – UALR baseball (14-27, 10-12) took a 7-3 loss to UT Arlington (19-26, 10-13) at Clay Gould Ballpark on Saturday afternoon.
UT Arlington took an early 5-0 lead on six hits and two errors by the Trojans' defense. The Mavericks took advantage of the Trojans with six consecutive singles to begin the bottom half of the first inning.
"We're obviously in a bad storm right now as a team," head coach Chris Curry said. "UTA jumped out as us again, which is tough."
UALR responded with a couple of runs in the top of the fourth inning. Sam Vogel led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Ryan Scott then sent a liner down the right field line to earn his 18th double of the season. With runners on second and third with no outs, Tanner Rockwell singled through the left side to score Vogel from third. Kyle Kirk lifted a sacrifice fly into left field as Scott sprinted home to cut the deficit to 5-2.
The Mavericks responded with a couple of more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Sibley was hit by a pitch. Scott reached on an infield error while Sibley advanced to second. With two outs, McLemore doubled down the right field line and advanced to third on the throw home while Sibley and Scott scored to up the lead to 7-2.
"The turning point for me in the game is when we didn't turn a key double play and made an error," Curry said. "They ended up hitting a double and both of those guys scored. That's the way it's going for us right now."
With one out in the top of the eighth, Vogel doubled down the right field line. Scott then singled through the right side, advancing Vogel to third to put runners on the corners. Rockwell reached on a fielder's choice to third base while Vogel scored the Trojans' third run.
Dyllon Brownmiller came on for starter Cory Malcom to begin the bottom of the eight. Malcom ended the day with strikeouts. Brownmiller had an efficient outing with a ground out, a strikeout and a line out on just 11 pitches.
The Trojans' chance for a comeback ended in the top of the ninth as the Trojans flew out, grounded out and hit into fielder's choice.
Scott ended the day going 2 for 4 and was the only Trojan batter with multiple hits. Rockwell earned two RBIs, getting his team-leading eighth multiple RBI game of the season.
The best-fielding team in the Sun Belt had some tough luck with defensive mistakes on Saturday as UALR's four errors were the most in a game this season.
"Four errors is a direct indication of not playing the way we are supposed to and are capable of playing," Curry said. "That's the answer to why we're losing games right now. The answer to coming out of this funk is calming down and making routine plays when the moment comes to them."
The Trojans will to try avoid the sweep in the series finale at UT Arlington on Sunday at 1 p.m.
