RICHARDSON, Texas (05.14.21) - Texas-Dallas capped a perfect run through the American Southwest Conference post-season tournament, knocking off East Texas Baptist, 5-1, Friday afternoon to claim the 2021 ASC Baseball Championship.

The Comets (29-10), the top seed, took Thursday's game 12-7 over the Tigers (29-16), who were the second seed. UTD wrapped up the series Friday afternoon with a 5-1 victory.

The Comets also won the championship in 2018. They earned the ASC's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, which will be their third appearan. The selection show for the tournamecent will be Sunday, May 23 on NCAA.com at 11 a.m.

In game one, ETBU took a 2-0 lead after the top of the first, but UTD answered with four in the bottom of the frame and two more in the second to go up 6-2. Junior left fielder A.J. Liu hit a two-run homer in the fourth for the Comets and Zachary McAdams had two-run single in the fifth to make the game 8-4.

Second baseman Ramon Garza, the tournament MVP, hit a grand slam in the eighth to give UTD a 12-4 advantage. The Tigers managed three more runs in the ninth to make the final score 12-7.

Garza was 4-for-5 with five RBI, four runs scored, a double and the grand slam. Liue drove in three and Marcos Villegas hit a two-run homer in the first.

McAdams was 3-for-4 with four RBI and center fielder Christopher Shay was 3-for-5 with two runs scored for ETBU.

Carter Cochrane (10-0) earned the win on the mound, allowing eight hits, four runs and three walks with six strikeouts over six frames.

In Friday's game, Blake Birdwell threw seven innings, allowing a run seven hits and four strikeouts to move to 5-3 on the year. Relivers Ben Soule and Orion Drymond combined for three strikeouts in the final two innings. Eer ETBU reliever Sayer Collins struck out five and allowed just one walk in 3.1 scoreless innings.

Shortstop Keagan Vance put the Comets on the board in the top of the second with an RBI-single to right field. Tiger shortstop evened it up in the fourth with a solo home run over the left field fence, his 15th on the season. 

Villegas gave UTD the lead for good with a two-run single up the middle. A pair of errors led to two more Comet runs in the sixth.

 
All-Tournament Team / Gold Bracket
MVP - Ramon Garza, UT Dallas
Blake Birdwell, UT Dallas
Carter Cochrane, UT Dallas
Jacob Perry, UT Dallas
Marcos Villegas, UT Dallas
Sayer Collins, East Texas Baptist
Blake Corbin, East Texas Baptist
Zachary McAdams, East Texas Baptist
Christopher Shay, East Texas Baptist