Trojans Claim 14th Sun Belt Win in Victory vs. UTA

LITTLE ROCK – Two multi-run homers in the bottom of the fourth inning powered Little Rock baseball (23-20, 14-8 Sun Belt) past UT Arlington (23-24, 9-13 Sun Belt) as the Trojans picked up a 5-3 victory in the series opener on Friday night at Gary Hogan Field.
 
Little Rock now has 14 conference wins for the year, the second-most in a single season in program history.
 
Nik Gifford and Kyle Kirk each homered with Gifford picking up two RBIs and Kirk picking up three.
 
Dalton Thomas was the only Trojan with multiple hits as he went 2 for 4 with a run scored. Thomas now 24 multiple hit games for the year, second-most on the team behind Ryan Scott's 25.
 
Scoreless heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, Dalton Thomas single up the middle with one out. This set Gifford up for a two-run homer to center, his sixth of the season. With two outs, Zach Baker and Ty Gunter walked to put runners on first and second. Kirk then drilled a three-run shot to right for his first-career homer and put Little Rock up 5-0.
 
With the bases full of Mavericks and one out in the top of the fifth, R.J. Williams hit an RBI single through the left side to plate UTA's first run.
 
The Mavericks put two more runs across in the top of the seventh. With two on and one out, Williams hit an RBI double to left to score Cody Farrell from third. With runners in scoring position, Brady Cox hit an RBI ground out to first as Matt McLean scored to cut UT Arlington's lead to 5-3.
 
Trojan pitcher Matt McDowell (3-1) ended the night after the seventh inning as he threw four strikeouts and allowed nine hits, three runs (all earned) and one walk while hitting two batters on 107 pitches. McDowell went on to pick up the win after Cody Daylor came on to begin the eighth. In the final two innings, Daylor struck out two and only allowed a hit and walk to pick up his fourth save of the season.
 
"The keys for me were only striking out one time and walking them twice," head coach Chris Curry said. "Those are details inside the game we set before the game as in-game goals. That's how you win the game within the game. That was a great win late in the season against a really solid club."
 
Little Rock will go for its sixth Sun Belt series win tomorrow at 2 p.m., at Gary Hogan Field.