Clarksville, Arkansas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team grabbed early leads in both games and never looked back as the Cru rolled to a doubleheader sweep over the University of the Ozarks Friday afternoon in Arkansas. UMHB won game one 6-2 before taking a 12-4 victory in game two to improve to 9-7 overall and 7-4 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. The Eagles drop to 5-14 overall and 2-10 in the ASC on the year with the two losses.
The Cru jumped on top early and added some late insurance runs in a 6-2 game one win. Heath Spencer's RBI groundout gave UMHB a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Chase Burrow doubled home a run and scored on Riley Davis' RBI single to make it 3-0 Cru in the top of the third. Ozarks cut it to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth, but K.J. Stark doubled home a run and scored on Rob Loewe's two-run homer in a three-run seventh for UMHB. The Eagles added one more in the bottom of the seventh, but that's as close as Ozarks could get. Seth Hill scattered three hits and allowed just an unearned run in five and a third innings to raise his record to 2-1 on the year. Stark had three of the Cru's nine hits and also recorded all three outs on the mound in the bottom of the seventh for UMHB.
The Cru grabbed a quick 3-0 lead in game two and cruised to a 12-4 win. Tripp Reeves singled home a first inning run and scored ahead of Emery Atkisson's two-run double in the top of the first inning. Burrow had an RBI double, Reeves followed with an RBI triple and Cole Haag added an RBI double to push it to 6-0 in the top of the third. Loewe had a sacrifice fly in the fourth and Atkisson scored on a double play in the fifth to stretch the lead to 8-0. Ozarks put a run on the board in the bottom of the fifth, but Dakota Parsons hit a solo homer and Atkisson added a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Stark doubled home two more in the top of the ninth to give UMHB a 12-1 advantage. The Eagles tacked on three runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late to overcome the early deficit. Aaron Barteau picked up the win for the Cru to improve to 3-0 on the season. He struck out 10 and allowed just one hit and an unearned run in seven innings of work. Loewe had four hits for UMHB and Parsons and Haag added three hits apiece to lead an 18-hit attack.
The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM single game on Saturday. The Cru will then continue its road trip with a 6:00 PM non-conference game at Southwestern University in Georgetown next Tuesday.