Story courtesy of Texas Lutheran University Sports Information
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Texas Lutheran University's Eric Rabinowitz drove in Chad Curtis with the winning run in a 2-1 Spokane, Wash. Regional victory over the University of Texas at Dallas Saturday.
Rabinowitz singled to left-center field. Curtis, running on contact with two outs, slid headfirst with the winning run well before the throw came home. In that game, Rabinowitz finished 4-for-4 with the game-winning RBI.
TLU now turns right around and plays Willamette (Ore.) in a battle of the only undefeated teams remaining the regional tournament.
Game time for the TLU-Willamette contest is 4:30 p.m. CDT (2:30 p.m. PDT). The winner of the TLU-Willamette game advances to the regional championship round and would need to be beaten twice on the final day of the tournament.
The Bulldogs improved to 36-9 overall. UT Dallas dropped to 1-1 in the regional and to 31-16 overall. TLU defeated UT Dallas for the fourth time this season.
UT Dallas will play Chapman (Calif.) tonight at 8 p.m. CDT (6 p.m. PDT).
TLU's Nathan Malinovsky picked up the complete-game victory to improve to 11-1. Malinovsky, the redshirt junior from New Braunfels, struck out six and walked three.
Malinovsky worked out of trouble in the seventh and eighth, when the Comets put the first two batters on base.
TLU took a 1-0 lead in the third on an RBI groundout from Ben Marvin.
Curtis scored both runs for TLU. The junior first baseman went 2-for-3.
TLU had two runners thrown out at home plate (one in the eighth, one in the ninth) before Curtis scored the winning run. UTD had a runner thrown out in the top of the eight. TLU's was thrown out one batter before Rabinowitz delivered the winning hit.