Brownwood, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team grabbed early leads in both games and never looked back on the way to a doubleheader sweep of Howard Payne University Saturday in Brownwood. The Cru won game one 8-1 and took game two by an 8-3 score. UMHB improves to 9-11 overall and 2-4 in American Southwest Conference West Division play with the two victories. HPU falls to 14-12 overall and 1-5 in the ASC West on the year with the two losses.
The Cru scored in every inning but one on the way to an 8-1 victory in game one. Zach Whiddon opened the scoring with a first-inning, RBI single. Robert Loewe drove in a run on an error in the top of the third and Chris Florack and Chase Burrow added RBI singles in the fourth and fifth to push the lead to 4-0. Jake Ricketts and Heath Spencer singled home runs in the sixth and Spencer scored on a wild pitch to give UMHB a 7-0 lead. The Yellow Jackets scored their only run in the bottom of the sixth, but Spencer added an insurance run on a seventh inning RBI single to stretch it to the final margin. Chance Ryan tossed a complete-game, three-hitter and allowed just an unearned run to even his record at 2-2 for the Cru. Spencer had three hits and two RBI for UMHB and Whiddon and Burrow added two hits apiece.
UMHB grabbed another early lead in game two. Spencer singled and came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 1-0 in the first. Florack's RBI single in the third gave the Cru a 2-0 edge. Garrett Webb's RBI single was followed by Florack's bases loaded triple in the fourth to make it 6-0 UMHB. The Yellow Jackets scored three in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap to 6-3, but Webb tripled and scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning and added an RBI double in the top of the seventh. Florack and Webb had three hits apiece and combined to drive in six runs for UMHB. Spencer, Whiddon and Will Stafford added two hits each. Jeremy Sapp picked up the win with five and a third innings of four-hit, scoreless relief work to move to 2-0 on the season.
UMHB will return to action with a 7:00 PM non-conference game at Trinity University next Tuesday. The Cru will then return home to host Hardin-Simmons for a three-game ASC West Division series next weekend at Red Murff Field.