ATLANTA -- Georgia State rallied to tie the game in the eighth inning before falling on a ninth-inning home run in Sunday's 4-2 loss to UT Arlington, spoiling an outstanding start by Trey Horton.
Horton, the sophomore right-hander, pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and three walks while striking out five.
UTA (15-9, 4-2 Sun Belt) swept the series, but Georgia State (7-17, 2-4 Sun Belt) lost the Saturday and Sunday games by a total of three runs and led 5-3 in the seventh inning Friday. The Panthers have struggled to score runs with top hitter and run producer Jake Corso sidelined by injury, leaving 10 on base Sunday.
Along with Horton, UTA starter David Moffat was outstanding but neither figured in the decision. Moffat pitched into the eighth inning and allowed two runs, including one earned, on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning, when Luke Leonard delivered a two-out, run-scoring single to bring home Griffin Cheney, who was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to second on Brandon Bell's single.
UTA took the lead in the eighth on a two-run homer by Conner Aube, one of the leading hitters in the Sun Belt.
But the Panthers answered in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of a pair of UTA errors to put runners at first and second with one out. Elian Merejo delivered a solid single to center field to score Daino Deas with the tying run.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Dylan Paul broke the tie with a two-run homer to right center. GSU put runners at first and secodn with two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Andrew Gross got the final out to earn his third save of the weekend for the Mavericks.
"Trey Horton was magnificent today," head coach Greg Frady said. "He threw six great innings, and that's back-to-back weekends where he has thrown like that. We are all disappointed that we couldn't finish the game for Trey.
"It's tough treading right now, but a lot of our young guys are getting experience. Hard experience. We've just got to keep going. The team played hard today."
Georgia State hosts Kennesaw State Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the GSU Baseball Complex before heading to Little Rock this weekend.
