RICHARDSON, Texas -- The LeTourneau baseball team was defeated in the double-header at UT Dallas who won 8-4 and  3-2 on Thursday.

Dane Jones is now in sole possession of the LeTourneau baseball career home run record with 40 after his solo shot in game two. He passed up Mike Huffman (1994-97) who had 39 under his belt.

The blast was Jones' 19th on the season.

GAME TWO: UT Dallas 3, LeTourneau 2

LeTourneau hopped out to an early lead that did not hold as UT Dallas fought back and secured a 3-2 win over the YellowJackets.

Dane Jones led off for LeTourneau taking the 0-2 pitch yard for a home run to secure the all-time career home run record and take a 1-0 lead.

The pitching duel was on after that with just one hit from each team after Jones' homer in the first till the fifth inning when Blake Vice singled to left field advancing the walked batter in Ethan Wood to second. 

Garrett Irwin came to the plate and put one in play for Wood to be 90 feet away before Zach Zarko notched a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 after five frames.

UT Dallas tied it up at 2-2 in the sixth inning on two hits. The Comets found the lead (3-2) in the eighth inning with a hit, stolen base, and a pair of wild pitches.

The YellowJackets worked the ninth inning with a few hits starting with Jaggar Vaughn who singled on a 0-2 count. 

Carter Amarantos took the baton and kept it rolling with a base hit. Xander Nabors notched a single before Amarantos was put out at second base on a tag play.

Aman Patel pitched 6.0 innings allowing just two earned runs for a quality start. Patel also notched three strikeouts.

Calvin Lopez came in relief for 1.1 innings and allowed just one earned run. Dylan Cortes finished it out with the last two outs going down as Ks.

Ryan Vera got the win for the Comets with 7.0 innings of work, two earned runs, and a strikeout. Kasey Klyng got the save with 1.0 innings, three hits, and no runs against.

GAME ONE: UT Dallas 8, LeTourneau 4

LeTourneau battled with UT Dallas the whole way as the YellowJackets took a 2-0 lead before the Comets scored a pair of runs in the third and four more in the fourth.

Kevin Soto knocked in the first RBI as he singled to left field bringing in Dane Jones, who earlier doubled to right center. The run made it 1-0 through one in favor of the visitors.

Ethan Wood and Zach Zarko got a couple of singles and took advantage of a fielding error to leave two in scoring position for Hayden Norris who grounded out to third for an RBI to make it 2-0.

UT Dallas notched a couple of hits to score one run in the bottom of the second to make it 2-1 through two.

The Comets took their first lead in the bottom of the third scoring two runs on one hit and an error to make it 3-2.

LeTourneau fought right back their next go around at the plate as Tyler Hedin and Wood each drew a walk to start the frame.

Hayden Norris loaded the bases with his one-out single. Dane Jones put the ball in play for an RBI fielder's choice to make it a one-run game.

Xander Nabors followed that with a single to left center for an RBI to take a 4-3 YellowJacket lead.

The Comets returned the favor in the bottom of the fourth with four runs of their own on two hits and two errors making it 7-4. 

The LeTourneau offense looked to rally in the top of the seventh as Vaughn singled up the middle to lead off the inning, however, a double play would take him off the base path.

Amarantos would grab a base hit to extend the inning. Devin Greaff came in to pinch hit in the following spot as he would record the last hit for the game moving Amarantos to second before Wood grounded out for the final out.

Ryan Brewer was credited with the loss for his 3.2 innings of work. Brewer recorded two strikeouts in that time.

Zac Schneider came in relief for 1.2 innings and also notched a pair of strikeouts.

TJ Spitdowski got the final two outs with a strikeout and a groundout.

The UT Dallas reliever Trevor McGrath got the win for his 2.0 innings and four strikeouts and Ben Price got the save for his 1.1 innings to close the game.

UP NEXT

LeTourneau will host the series finale with UT Dallas on Saturday with the first pitch set for 2 p.m.

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