By Mike Hensley

After a rain delay that lasted two hours and three minutes, The University of Texas-Arlington and the Troy Trojans finally got their 2015 Sun Belt Conference Tournament underway.

The Mavericks hit the Trojan pitchers hard all night and cruised to a 13-5 victory sending them to the winner’s bracket and a showdown with Texas State Thursday evening.

After the rain delay, Lucas Brown took the mound for Troy and struggled in the first inning allowing three runs on five hits. Levi Scott had the big hit for the Mavericks scoring Sean Mclean. The inning did end on a positive note for the Trojans; Logan Hill threw out what would have been the fourth run of the inning at home plate after single to right.

The Trojans answered quickly in their half of the first inning when Matt Sanders led off the inning with a triple off Maverick starting pitcher Chad Nack. He scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Reid Long. The Trojans left two runners on base in the inning but cut the deficit to two runs.

Brown regained his form in the second inning, after a leadoff walk to Keenan Hall, Brown came back to strikeout the side.

With one out in the second inning, The Trojans inched a little closer when Clay Holcomb sent a pitch deep into the Troy night cutting the Maverick lead to 3-2.

The Mavericks answered with a homerun themselves in the top of the third inning when RJ Williams connected with the pitch sending the ball over the left field wall. McLemore scored on the homerun after he drove in Jackson Morris with a base hit to left.

The back-and-forth innings continued in the fourth when Tripp Calhoun laid down a safety squeeze scoring Nick Masonia, who waited until after the throw to first to sprint home.

Matt Sanders then connected on one of his three hits Wednesday night, scoring

Clay Holcomb.

In the fifth inning, the Mavericks broke open the game. With the bases loaded Levi Scott hammered a grand slam to left field clearing the fence, and giving the Mavericks a commanding 11-4 lead.

After the Trojans scored on a Hill single, the Mavericks concluded their scoring by connecting on their third homerun of the game giving them a 13-5 lead.

Nack picked up the win for the Mavericks; Nack pitched six innings allowing four earned runs off 10 hits.

Lucas Brown picked up the loss for the Trojans, going three and two-thirds innings allowing six runs off ten hits.

After the loss the Trojans enter the loser’s bracket, and will play a 12:30 p.m. game with Louisiana-Lafayette. The loser of that matchup will be eliminated from tournament.