The UT Dallas baseball team 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.
It was UTD's second baseball title in the last three completed seasons. The Comets won their first championship in 2018.
The Comets (29-10) used timely hitting and a stellar pitching performance from starter Blake Birdwell Friday afternoon to win their 10th straight game, earning the ASC's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
The NCAA tournament bracket will be announced on Monday, May 23, on ncaa.com.
While the Comets (29-10) have relied heavily on their offense to overpower the ASC field, it was UTD's performance on the mound that made the difference in the tournament finale. Birdwell put together arguably his best start of the spring, allowing just a single run in 7.0 innings before giving way to two shutdown efforts from relievers Ben Soule & Orion Drymond.
That was all it took as UTD pulled away from a 1-1 tie in the pressure-packed game with two runs in each of the 5thand 6th innings to finish off the Tigers (29-16).
Birdwell (5-3), who scattered 7 hits and struck out 4 without issuing a walk or hit batter. He was named to All-Tournament team along with teammates Carter Cochrane, Jacob Perry, Marcos Villegas and Ramon Garza, who was selected the Gold Bracket Most Valuable Player.
This time around, the Comets were not intimidated by ETBU starter Isaiah Alvarenga (9-3), who shut down the Comets earlier this season in a 3-6 loss. UTD managed eight hits against the Tiger hurler through the first four innings, but only managed a single run in the 2nd when freshman Keagan Vance singled with two out to score Villegas and give the Comets an early 1-0 advantage. Through five innings, UTD had stranded 8 runners.
The Tigers, who were playing as the home team in the second game of the Gold Bracket series, tied it up 1-1 in the bottom of the 4th when Jake Miller deposited one of Birdwell's few mistakes over the left field wall. It was his 15thhome run of the season.
But UTD answered immediately in the top of the 5th, taking the lead it would not surrender. A.J. Liu walked and Deylan Moreno doubled to put runners at second and third with one out. Villegas again delivered the clutch hit with a single up the middle that scored them both and made it 3-1.
With the game still close, ETBU didn't do itself any favors in the 6th, committing a pair of infield throwing errors that led to two more Comet runs. Perry walked and was advanced to second base on a Garza single to left field before the first miscue, an errant throw on an attempted double play that allowed Perry to scamper home. Liu then scored to make it 5-1 when a ground ball that would have ended the inning was thrown past first base.
The Tigers threatened in their half of the 6th and 7th, but Birdwell worked himself out of trouble. Soule came in in relief of Birdwell to throw the 8th and gave up a hit batter and single to start the inning before ending that threat with a strikeout and two fly balls. Drymond was also perfect in the 9th, striking out the first two hitters he faced and inducing a game-ending fly ball.
Garza, Moreno and Villegas each had a pair of hits in the finale.