Hitmen

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost college baseball team has been on a roll as of late.

A significant increase in production at the plate is one of the major factors that has led them back from a dismal start to a bid in the Red River Athletic Conference Tournament (which they are hosting).

The quartet of Ryan Macdonald, Jorge Camorlinga, Brian Dombeck and Jacob Yousif all have been an integral part of the 180-degree turnaround for UTB-TSC.

In the first 16 games the Scorpions were batting a lowly .238 clip with a mere homerun to show for against stiff competition.

Taking on teams such as Wayland Baptist University, Lubbock Christian University, University of Houston-Victoria and Bacone College (three of which are now nationally ranked) who were a combined 100-11-1 by the Scorpions 16th game, the Scorpions strug-gled out of the gate.

Camorlinga wasn't starting, MacDonald was injured and the team was in shambles at 0-12.

Struggling to find a lineup that worked, coach Joel Barta one day jotted down a lineup he thought was right and announced that there would be no more changes.

Then something clicked.

The Scorpions erupted for 14 runs on 10 hits and hammered UHV 14-4.

"You come out playing all those good teams and get pounded for a couple games; it was a morale check," MacDonald said. "Base-ball wise you're thinking ‘what are we doing wrong?' Then we won our first game after a while and knew we had to play that way every game and that's what we've been doing since."

Since then UTB-TSC has been on a tear, especially with leadoff hitter MacDonald who is ranked second in the nation in triples batting a .371 average with 27 RBIs, 50 runs and two homers.

Camorlinga, a Hanna graduate, went from sitting on the bench to leading the team with a blistering .383 batting average, along with 14 stolen bases and 50 runs with 26 RBIs in the two hole.

A freshman and likely redshirt player, he took advantage of every chance he recieved on the field, forcing Barta to insert him in the lineup permanently.

"Early on he got a few chances and he had success. If it ain't broke we're not going to fix it," Barta said. "We got to the point where we called him in and said you've forced us to play you and that's a credit to him."

Dombeck and Collins are arguably two of the hardest hitters on the team and have provided the bulk of the power.

Collins has a team high five home runs and 40 RBIs with a solid .281 average in the heart of the lineup.

Barta said that the slugger from Bay City was trying to do too much at the plate early on but once he settled in his average and homers went up.

"He was pressing so much so early," Barta said. "He was trying to hit six home runs at one time, and he's a long levered guy and those guys usually take a little longer to heat up."

Those four in the top of the lineup have helped the Scorpions outscore their opponents 137 to 88 which in turn alleviated pressure from the starting pitches for more wins.

During its 17-game homestand the scoring dropped their ERA six runs in that stretch that snowballed to conference play.

Dombeck not only provided power but consistency with a .320 BA, with 34 RBIs and two homers.

He also boasts a 2-0 record from the bullpen with 17 strikeouts in 13 innings of work.

UTB-TSC locks up with No. 18 Texas Weslayan in the opening round of the RRAC tournament where Barta knows his team is go-ing to continue swinging the bats well.

"Naturally the more you score the better opportunity you have to win," Barta said. "Lately we've been pretty loose at the plate in pulling the trigger and in the postseason that has a tendency to go down. So when you get you're chances you've got to take care of it."