No. 12 Baseball drops 7-5 decision to UT Arlington
Feb. 21, 2012 AUSTIN, Texas -- The No. 12 Texas Longhorns fell behind 7-3 and rallies in the eighth and ninth innings came up short in a 7-5 loss to the UT Arlington Mavericks on Tuesday evening at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Two errors and a passed ball proved costly to the Longhorns as four of UTA's seven runs went down as unearned for the Texas' pitching staff. In just his second start since 2010, Austin Dicharry (0-1) was saddled with the loss, yielding four runs, two earned, on four hits while striking out four over 2.1 innings. After falling behind 7-3, the Texas bullpen held the Mavericks scoreless through the last five innings, but the Longhorns were unable to muster enough offense to erase the deficit. In the eighth inning, Mark Payton drew a leadoff walk and scored on a one-out triple by Erich Weiss to cut the gap to 7-4, but the Horns left Weiss stranded at third to end the inning. Texas mounted another charge in the ninth inning. Jacob Felts singled to start the inning, but was gunned down at third base on a single by Collin Shaw. Christian Summers was hit by a pitch and Tim Maitland walked to load the bases. Payton was issued a base on balls to push Shaw across, to cut the gap to 7-5, but a strikeout and groundout ended the game. The Mavericks took a 1-0 lead in the top of the opening frame. Derek Miller hit a double and advanced to third on a passed ball. Miller came around to score on a single to shallow right field by Preston Beck for the first run of the game. Payton paced the Longhorns at the plate, going 2-for-2 with three walks, two runs and one RBI. Preston Beck went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI. Derek Miller went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and one RBI. Lance Day (2-0) picked up the win for the Mavericks, yielding two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out four over 5.1 innings. Texas returns to action on Friday with a three-game set in California against the Stanford Cardinal. POSTGAME QUOTES On the message after this game compared to Sunday's loss: Things were said differently, because I don't remember exactly what I said on Sunday. I think we played much poorer tonight than we did on Sunday. What is surprising to me is we spent a lot of time knowing there was a possibility of not being focused on this. On costly errors that lead to runs: Our catch playing has not been very good. There were balls missed that could have been outs in the first inning that lead to runs and later on. It was a poor performance. There are a lot of things to pick apart and we will start to do that. We gave them a lot of extra outs within the framework of an inning. We gave them a lot of extra bases, which adds up to runs. We didn't have any time to hit it. SENIOR RHP Austin Dicharry On what was working for him: Everything was clicking the entire time. I really didn't miss my spots much. I put the ball where they asked me to throw it. They put some quality swings on some balls. That is what the game gave me today, so I just have to take it and learn from it. On what he has been working on the most: We have tried a number of things. I can't even tell you all of the things we tried. Out there is what we came up with and it has been working. We are going to build off of that and take it into my next start. SOPHOMORE OF Mark Payton On who on the team is the most vocal leadership wise: Me,[Sophomore C] Jacob [Felts], [Sophomore RHP] Nathan [Thornhill] and [Senior RHP] Austin [Dicharry] were named the captains. Today Jacob and me stepped up and talked a little bit. I think we need to be more vocal. I don't think a lot of people really understand what [Head] Coach [Augie] Garrido is saying yet. He will get his point across and this team will figure it out. Once we figure it out, it is going to be a fun ride. SOPHOMORE 3B Erich Weiss On the team's focus going into their next game: It is going to be a good feeling. We need to play our game like we did the first two games this year. Hopefully, it will turn out well.
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