THE LEAD
No. 23 DBU survived a road test on Tuesday night, defeating UT-Arlington, 9-7, at Clay Gould Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. Luke Bandy went 2-for-4 with four RBI and a run scored, collecting his first collegiate hit on a two-run double in the sixth and adding an RBI triple for insurance in the ninth.
 
Jimmy Fouse (1-0) earned the win for the Patriots after pitching 1+ innings of relief for starting pitcher Coby Weaver, allowing one run on one hit. Brady Vassar (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up three go-ahead runs in the fifth inning. Seth Elledge (2) picked up his second save of the year with two scoreless innings of work to close out the game.
 
DBU struck first in the opening frame as Listi took a 2-1 pitch over the right field fence for an early 1-0 lead. The hot start continued on the mound for Weaver, who faced the minimum amount of batters through 2 2/3 on 21 pitches before allowing a bloop single to Easton Johnson. Following the Listi bomb, the Patriots were held hitless until the fifth inning, as Tim Millard led the inning off with a single to left field. DBU went on to load the bases with no outs for Luke Bandy, who drew a walk to bring Millard home and force Petty out of the game. Jameson Hannah continued the no-out rally with a line shot that deflected off reliever Brady Vassar, allowing Hannah to reach first and Camden Duzenack to score. DBU added a third as Devlin Granberg grounded into a double play to make it 4-0 halfway through the game.
 
After a double by Quintin Rohrbaugh led off the bottom of the fifth inning, Weaver walked back-to-back batters to load the bases, bringing his outing to an end. Jimmy Fouse began his relief work by pegging Josh Minjarez to bring in Rohrbaugh, followed by a two-RBI single off the bat of Johnson to cut the lead to 4-3. The Mavericks evened the score on a double-play ball, but Fouse worked his way out of the jam. Weaver finished the game with 54 pitches in four innings, allowing three runs on just two hits. For the third straight half-inning, one of the schools loaded the bases with no outs as DBU took advantage of a hit-by-pitch, error and a walk. After Dylan Schneider came in to relieve Vassar, he allowed a two-run double to Bandy. A sac-fly from Jameson Hannah brought Duzenack home for the second time to extend the Patriot lead to 7-4. Granberg kept the rally going with an RBI double down the line in right.
 
After Fouse walked the first two batters to begin the sixth, Dan Heefner turned to Travis Stone, who forced two groundouts that scored runs to cut the DBU lead to 8-6. With runners at second and third in the seventh, Heefner went to the bullpen again for Gavin Fritz, who threw a wild pitch to allow Minjarez to score and cut the lead to 8-7. Fritz followed by striking out Omar Salinas for the first strikeout by Patriots pitching since the first at-bat of the game. Seth Elledge came out in the eighth to complete the six-out save, striking out two of the three he faced in the eighth. On the offensive end, DBU added an insurance run in the final frame on a two-out RBI triple by Bandy to take a 9-7 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Elledge closed out the Mavericks in the bottom of the ninth to clinch the victory.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - DBU is now 6-0 when scoring first.
 - Tim Millard reached base in four of his five at-bats in the win.
 - Listi's first-inning homerun was the first run given up by UTA in the opening frame all season.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
16 – Seth Elledge now has 16 career saves and sits seven saves behind Brandon Koch for second all-time in DBU's Division I history.
41 – Of DBU's 81 hits this season, 41 have gone for extra bases.
8 – Austin Listi and Jameson Hannah have recorded a hit in all eight games this season.
 
UP NEXT
DBU returns home to host Jacksonville State for a weekend series, beginning Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Horner Ballpark.