Tough Defense Earns Baseball the Win at Northwood
March 5, 2008

CEDAR HILL, Texas -- The University of Texas at Tyler baseball team’s tough defense in the final innings of Wednesday’s game at Northwood helped carry the Patriots to the 2-1 non-conference win.

The first run of the game came in the top of the third inning, when junior Kendall Fox (Carrollton, Texas) took the1-2 pitch from Northwood’s Robby Gonzalez over the right field wall for Fox’s first homerun of the year.

The game would stay at 1-0 until the top of the fifth inning, when senior Clay Baker (Henderson, Texas) took Gonzalez yard once again for his fourth homerun of the season.

The Patriots kept the 2-0 lead until Northwood’s Chaney Stout scored off of a Patriot error in the bottom of the sixth, cutting the Knight’s deficit in half.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, UT Tyler found itself in a bit of jam with the bases loaded and two outs. Enter Patriot reliever Beau Ziegler (North Wales, Pa.). Ziegler would face off with one of the Knight’s top hitters R.J. Harris. Harris came into the game with a slugging percentage of .475 and leading his team with 11 RBIs. Ziegler had Harris at a 3-2 count, when Cody Via of Northwood slipped while taking his lead off of second, allowing him to picked off by Ziegler to end the inning.

While the Patriots were not able to score in the top of the ninth, they would once again turn to their defense to help seal the win. Ziegler would strike out the first two batters of the inning, while the third batter would ground out to end the game.

Sophomore Colby Munchrath picked up the win on the mound for UT Tyler, allowing no earned runs on just two hits and striking out seven batters. The win was Munchrath’s first of the season.

The eighth-ranked Patriots now stand at 12-1 on the season, while Northwood falls to 4-10 on the year.

The Patriots will return to Irwin Field on Friday evening to take on Austin College at 6 p.m.

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