Brownwood, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team kept its season opening hot streak alive as the Cru rolled to a doubleheader sweep of Howard Payne University Saturday in Brownwood. UMHB posted 17-3 and 8-6 victories to improve to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in American Southwest Conference play. The Yellow Jackets fall to 3-4 overall and 0-3 in ASC play with the two losses.
The Cru broke open game one with a 14-run sixth inning on the way to a 17-3 victory. Zach Whiddon's sacrifice fly made it 1-0 UMHB in the top of the first, but HPU answered with two in the bottom of that frame. Bradley Pounds singled home two runs in the top of the fourth to give the Cru a 3-2 lead. After the Yellow Jackets tied it in the bottom of the fifth, UMHB erupted for its big inning. Two bases loaded walks and two bases loaded hit batters accounted for four of the runs. K.J. Stark singled home another run, Chase Burrow singled home two, Josh Cruz had a three-run double, Pounds tripled home a run, Dakota Parsons doubled home two more and the final run scored on an error. Pounds finished with two hits and three RBI and Burrow and Stark added two hits apiece. The Cru had just nine hits, but were hit five times and walked eight more. Nick Bergmann scattered five hits and three runs over five innings to earn the win and move his record to 1-0 for the Cru.
UMHB pushed across two runs in the top of the ninth inning to record an 8-6 victory in game two. The Cru scored on an error in the top of the first before HPU again answered with two in the bottom of the first. A run-scoring error and wild pitch gave UMHB a 3-2 lead in the top of the third. Stark and Parsons added RBI singles in the top of the fourth to make it 5-2 Cru and Burrow singled home a run in the fifth to give UMHB a 6-2 edge. Howard Payne scored two runs in the seventh and two more in the bottom of the eighth to tie it at 6-6. Robert Loewe singled home the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth and Burrow singled home an insurance run. Aaron Barteau struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to record the win for UMHB to move to 1-0 on the year. Stark and Parsons had three hits apiece for the Cru and Burrow and Tripp Reeves each had two safeties to lead a 12-hit attack. Four UMHB pitchers combined on an eight-hitter and struck out 12 Yellow Jacket hitters.
UMHB will now return home for its first home games of the season next weekend. The Cru will host U.T.-Tyler for a three-game, ASC series at Red Murff Field. The two teams will play a 4:00 PM single game on Friday before closing out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader next Saturday.