Seguin, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team jumped out to an early lead and then held on for a 9-4 victory over Texas Lutheran in the Cru's season opener Tuesday in Seguin. UMHB is now 1-0 to start the season. The loss drops the Bulldogs to 5-3 on the year.

Robert Loewe opened the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first and Tripp Reeves stretched it to 2-0 when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Dakota Parsons added a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 Cru in the third inning. TLU cut it to 3-1 before UMHB added four runs over the next three innings. Loewe sandwiched RBI groundouts around Will Stafford's RBI single and Reeves added an RBI single to give the Cru a 7-1 lead in the sixth. The Bulldogs added two runs in the bottom of the sixth and one more in the seven to close to within 7-4, but UMHB added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Parsons singled home the first run and scored the second on K.J. Stark's single to provide the final margin.

Stark, Loewe and Parsons had two hits apiece for UMHB and Loewe drove in three runs and scored two more for the Cru. Parsons and Reeves added two RBI each as UMHB pounded out 11 hits in the win. Ian Ekery picked up the win after scattering two hits and allowing just an unearned run in three innings. Four pitchers combined on a nine-hitter for UMHB.

The win gives Cru head coach Ben Shipp 299 career wins at UMHB. He needs one more victory to become just the second coach in Cru athletic history to reach 300 wins at the school. Men's basketball coach Ken DeWeese hit that milestone two weeks ago.

The Cru will open American Southwest Conference play with a three-game series at Howard Payne University this weekend in Brownwood. The two teams will play a 2:00 PM single game on Friday before closing out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday.