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SPORTS
| UPDATED April 22
Baseball
Mavs ‘didn’t adjust’
to Bobcats
The team lost 2 of 3 weekend games
to a ‘tough pitcher,’ but it is still in first place.
By R.C.
Wendler
The Shorthorn sports editor
The Mavericks won game one of their weekend series with Southwest
Texas State 8-2 before an uncharacteristically low-scoring team
showed up Saturday and Sunday, leading to two losses.
After collecting 11 hits Friday, UTA’s offense could only muster
a combined eight hits in games two and three, losing 6-3 in 11 innings
Saturday and 5-2 the following day. It was no coincidence that the
Mavericks (26-18, 14-4 SLC) were facing the Southland Conference’s
top two pitchers, statistically.
Brandon Hankins started game two for the Bobcats (21-21, 12-5 SLC)
and surrendered two earned runs on seven hits, walking only two
batters and striking out nine in eight innings. Tom Robbins shut
UTA down on Sunday, striking out 13 in seven and two-thirds innings
of work, allowing two runs on five hits. Reliever Mark Davis was
equally impressive, as he pitched three shutout innings in relief
of Hankins.
Coach Jeff Curtis said the Mavericks were impatient at the plate,
did not adjust with two strikes in the count and failed to shorten
their strokes to put the ball into play.
“The guys that threw on Saturday both had pretty good stuff,”
he said. “We didn’t adjust to what their pitchers did
to us. We didn’t do as good a job offensively as we did on
Friday or the past couple weeks.”
The Mavericks put up three runs in the second inning of game two
but had only four hits through the final nine innings. Shortstop
Kasey Baker said the team relaxed after going up by three runs early
in the game.
“We got on [Hankins] early and then kind of shut it down, thinking
we had him,” Baker said. “We had [Ricky]Stover throwing,
and we put up three runs early, so we got kind of loose.”
After Saturday’s loss, assistant coach Scott Malone said the
team talked about trying to prevent a hangover effect from hurting
the following game. He said the offense knew it would be facing
a tough pitcher in Robbins, but UTA has lighted up slow-throwing
left-handers before this season.
“We knew he was going to be really good, but the way he pitches
usually doesn’t slow us down,” Malone said. “I think
it was a mix between him having a great day and us maybe questioning
ourselves a little bit after the day before.”
Malone said Robbins threw a hard breaking ball that dropped out
of the strike zone, and the offense continued to chase it.
Baker, who struck out once against Robbins, said the team was shocked
when it realized the score was 5-0 in the eighth inning.
“Inning by inning went by, and we didn’t have any runs
and then all of a sudden it was late, and it was like, ‘Wow,
we’re losing to this kid,’ ” he said. “We haven’t
been in a tight game like that in a while, so I’m not sure
that we were ready to fight for it.”
Curtis said the team will not dwell on losing its first conference
series. The team does not play again until the University of Louisiana-Monroe
visits this weekend.
“We can’t sit and worry about it; we just have to get
back to practice and try to resolve some issues,” Curtis said.
“We’re still in first place.”
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