Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used another late comeback to post a game two victory as the Cru swept a doubleheader from the University of the Ozarks Friday afternoon in Belton. UMHB won game two 13-12 in ten innings after posting a 10-3 win in game one. The Cru improves to 15-3 overall and 12-2 in American Southwest Conference play with the two victories. The losses drop the Eagles to 7-12 overall and 4-10 in ASC play on the year.
The Cru broke open game one with a pair of big innings on the way to a 10-3 victory. The Eagles took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the second and third. UMHB then grabbed the lead with a four-run bottom of the third. Dakota Parsons and K.J. Stark singled home the first two runs, Zack Whiddon drew a bases loaded walk and Chase Burrow added a sacrifice fly. Parsons had an RBI double in the fourth to push the lead to 5-2 before Ozarks cut the gap to 5-3 in the top of the fifth. The Cru answered with five more in the bottom of that frame to put the game out of reach. Whiddon doubled home the first run, Steven Boggess was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Parsons drew a bases loaded walk and Rob Loewe singled home the final two runs. Nick Bergmann earned the win to raise his record to 3-1. Seth Barrow pitched three innings of four-hit relief for his first save. Parsons was 3-3 with three RBI and Stark added two hits as UMHB outhit Ozarks 12-7 in the victory.
The Cru overcome six errors and a two-run ninth inning deficit to win game two 13-12 with a walk off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Eagles took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but Justin Dingman's RBI single closed the gap to 2-1 in the bottom of the inning. Ozarks added two more in the fourth, but UMHB put four on the board in the bottom of the fourth and fifth to grab a 9-4 lead. Whiddon's RBI double opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth and Chase Burrow followed with a two-run homer. Parsons had an RBI single to give the Cru a 5-4 edge. Burrow added a three-run double in the fifth and Will Stafford had a sacrifice fly to make it 9-6. Ozarks scored two in the sixth and four more in the seventh to take a 10-9 lead, but Dingman's sacrifice fly in the bottom pulled UMHB even at 10-10. Ozarks took a 12-10 lead on a run-scoring error and a Tony Morales RBI double in the top of the ninth, but Burrow's one-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth re-tied the game and sent it to extra innings. Parsons had a one-out single in the bottom of the tenth, stole second and advanced to third when the pitch got past the Eagles' catcher. He then easily scored on Tripp Reeves' sacrifice fly to cap the comeback victory and set off a UMHB celebration. Danny Horstman earned the win in relief to move to 2-1 on the year. Burrow finished the game with three hits and seven RBI. Parsons and Whiddon also had three hits apiece in game two. The Cru committed six errors in the game and the two teams combined for 33 hits in the nightcap.
The two teams will close out the series with a 12:00 PM single game on Saturday at Red Murff Field. UMHB will then play host to Southwestern University for a 6:00 PM non-conference game next Tuesday.