Late Rally in Game 1; Flores Gem in Second Game help UD Baseball Sweep Austin College on Saturday
SHERMAN, Texas - The University of Dallas Crusaders baseball team took the first two games of their series against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) rival Austin on Saturday. Dallas won a wild and peculiar game one that featured several conspicuously bizarre scoring plays. Dallas went on to win in the extra innings thanks in part to the small ball play of their 3-4-5 hitters, and the stellar pitching of Tyler Montemayor (Boerne, Texas). UD won game two in a much more modest and conventional manner as Ryan Flores (San Diego, Calif.) led the 4-0 Crusader win with a complete game shutout.
(Game 1 Information F/10)
Team Scores: Dallas (9) Austin (8)
Team Records: Dallas (11-18, 7-11) Austin (5-21, 1-18)
Pitcher Records: W) Tyler Montemayor (2-4), L) Max Danielsen (1-1)
Dallas started the scoring of the wacky and vivacious soiree of game one with a pair of runs in the first inning. In an inning that featured no hits, Dallas loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman, which was then followed by back-to-back RBI walks from Ross Lowe (Lewisville, Texas) and Grady Birmingham (Newport Beach, Calif.).
Dallas figured out three more runs in the second inning, as the inning started out with a hit by pitch, a stolen base, and an infield single. Casey White (Amorita, Okla.) hit an RBI fly to left field, which was dropped for an error by Nick Flynn and allowed Joe Vondrachek (North St. Paul, Minn.) to advance to third. During the following at-bat by Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas), starting pitcher Aneurin Minson balked in Vondrachek for a run and then threw a wild pitch, which scored White.
Austin got all five runs back in the bottom of the inning. After Dallas prevented a run with an out at home off a double by Cody Goggins on a relay that went from Birmingham to Patton to White, Austin loaded the bases with two outs. A throwing error by Vondrachek allowed two Austin runs to score, and Flynn on the following at-bat powered a three run homer to left center.
Dallas regained the lead in the fourth on an RBI single by Birmingham, 6-5.
Austin took their first lead of the game in the fifth as Beau Beshires singled in two runs on a hit to left field to make the score 7-6.
Austin picked up another run in the seventh inning as the 'Roos put the runner on third off a hit and a throwing error, and then a passed ball. Goggins then grounded out to first to drive in the run.
Dallas then stole four bases in the next inning, and tied the score. With one out and runners on the corner, UD fabricated a run on a double steal as Patton stole second base to draw the throw to second and give Vondrachek the chance to steal home, which he did. Three batters later, Patton scored from third on an error by the catcher, Beshires, on a routine throw back to the pitcher. The throw was wide on the third base side of the mound, which allowed Patton to score and tie the game at 8-8.
In the 10th inning, Patton led off the inning with a walk and then stole second for UD's 11th stolen bases of the game. Zach Taylor (Humble, Texas) laid down a sacrifice bunt to send Patton to third, and Michael Anderson (Denver, Colo.) hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Patton and give UD a 9-8 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Montemayor retired the side in order to win the game.
Montemayor had his best outing of the season pitching 2 ⅔ innings allowing no hits, no runs, no walks and picking up one strikeout.
Vondrachek's four stolen bases is a career single game high.
11 of the game's 17 were not scored on a hit, and eight runs were unearned.
Runs were scored in 11 different fashions during the game, which were off a walk, a wild pitch, a balk, an error on a dropped fly ball, a throwing error on a play in progress, a throwing error returning a pitch, a double steal, a groundout, a sacrifice fly, a single, and a home run.
(Game 2 Information)
Team Scores: Dallas (4) Austin (0)
Dallas (12-18, 8-11) Austin (5-22, 1-19)
W) Ryan Flores (1-2), L) Jake Thomas (2-5)
In game two was a simplified defensive game juxtaposed to the scoring carnival of game one. Dallas was again the first team to score as Tyler Darnell (Southlake, Texas) put a single through the left side to score Anderson and put UD up 1-0. Anthony Maldonado (Del Rio, Texas) then grounded into a double play, which scored Lowe to make it 2-0.
In the ninth inning, Dallas scored their final runs of the game on an RBI single by Maldonado and a sacrifice fly by White.
Only once in the game did Austin put a runner on third base. The 'Roos put runners on second base four times in the second, third, sixth and ninth innings, however, the runner on second was erased three of those times.
In the second inning with no outs, Christian Kyser lined into a double play which saw Goggins put out at second.
In the third inning, Flynn grounded into a triple play around the horn, Vondrachek to Patton to Taylor.
In the sixth inning, Zack Mahoney was stranded on second as Goggins struck out to end the inning.
Finally, in the ninth inning with one out, Justin Alphonse was picked off at second base, White to Patton.
Flores pitched the best game of his career with a nine inning, complete game shutout allowing just four hits and three walks and striking out four.
The last shutout by UD was a seven inning shutout against Dallas Christian College back in 2019. The last nine inning shutout was against Schreiner University back in 2017, and the last nine inning shutout by one pitcher was against Southwestern University by Luciano Villanueva (San Antonio, Texas).
Vondrachek stole another base in game two, which brings his season total to 29. As of the end of Saturday, Vondrachek is currently third in the NCAA for stolen bases behind Roger Williams University's Joey Gulino, 31, and Hope College's Evan Maday, 30.
With the wins, UD improves to 12-18 (8-11), and is 6-1 on the road trip. The losses mean Austin falls to 5-22 (1-19). Due to rainfall on Saturday night, the game Sunday has been cancelled and will not be made up. This concludes Dallas' season.