Baseball Fights Back to Take Series From Ozarks
March 21, 2008

The UT Tyler Patriots stormed back from a Thursday night loss and started a new winning streak at Irwin Field with a pair of hard-fought victories over Ozarks on Friday afternoon in American Southwest Conference East Division action.

The Patriots, who had their 41-game home winning streak snapped by Ozarks on Thursday, took the first game, 2-1, and the finale, 7-6, to win the series and remain atop the ASC East.

The fourth-ranked Patriots become the first team in Division III to reach the 20-win mark this season and are now 21-4 on the year and 5-1 in the ASC. No. 17 Ozarks falls to 19-5 and 6-3 in the East.

Tied 1-1 after five innings in game two, UT Tyler capitalized on Ozarks’ errors to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Ozarks took the lead in their half of the seventh as UT Tyler pitching woes allowed the Eagles to score three runs with two outs on the board.

With Ozarks leading 4-3, Kendall Fox reached on a one-out single through the left side for UT Tyler in the bottom of the seventh. The next batter, Clay Baker, blasted the 1-0 pitch over the left-center wall for a two-run shot that put the Patriots up, 5-4.

The Eagles were not ready to give up yet and Robby Finnell put Ozarks back on top with a two-run homer of his own in the Ozarks’ half of the eighth that made the score 6-5 Ozarks.

With the series on the line, the Patriots scored two runs in bottom of the eighth, the first coming courtesy of an RBI double from Corey Farra that scored Chris Tucker and advanced Kyle Braden to third. A passed ball by Ozarks allowed Braden to break the tie and give UT Tyler the win.

Beau Ziegler got the win for the Patriots after pitching two innings in relief and John Schuering took the loss for Ozarks.

In game one, after allowing Ozarks to score in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Finnell that scored Bruce Cameron, the UT Tyler defense kicked in and held the Eagles scoreless for the rest of the game.

UT Tyler’s two runs came in their half of the second inning as Farra doubled to left-center, scoring Andrew Damewood who reached on a walk. Batting next, Chris Goss singled up the middle to plate Farra.

Both starting pitchers went the distance, with Brett Holland earning his sixth win of the year for the Patriots and Curt Dixon picking up just his first loss in five starts.

Both teams left six runners on base.

UT Tyler plays a non-conference game at Austin College on Tuesday before hosting Texas-Dallas at Irwin Field next weekend.

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