Tyler, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team put up five runs in the fifth inning, but it wasn't enough to hold off the defending conference champions as the Cru dropped an 8-6 decision to U.T.-Tyler Friday night in Tyler. The loss snaps UMHB's three-game winning streak and drops the Cru to 3-5 overall and 0-1 in American Southwest Conference play. U.T.-Tyler improves to 7-3 overall and 1-0 in ASC play with the victory.

The Patriots grabbed a 3-0 lead with three walks, a hit batter and a two-run single in the bottom of the third inning. An RBI single made it 4-0 U.T.-Tyler in the bottom of the fourth before the Cru put together its big inning. An error plated the first run and Riley Davis followed with an RBI fielder's choice. Dakota Parsons tripled home the third run and scored on Chase Burrow's sacrifice bunt. Cody Stone singled home the go-ahead run to close out the scoring in the top of the fifth. Brady McCoy singled home the tying run in the bottom of the fifth and the Patriots took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the seventh. An RBI single, a run scoring error and a sacrifice fly accounted for those runs. Davis doubled home Seth Martin in the top of the eighth to cut the lead to 8-6. Stone singled with two outs in the top of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but UMHB could not push across another run.

Stone and Parsons had three hits apiece for the Cru and Davis and Will Stafford added two hits each as UMHB out hit the Patriots 13-8. Ben Romines was the only U.T.-Tyler player with two hits in the game. Nathan Kent was charged with the loss to drop to 1-1 on the year. Max Page earned the win for the Patriots to improve to 1-1 on the year and Chad Hayes closed it out for his second save of the year.

The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday. The Cru will then return home to host Southwestern University in a non-conference game Tuesday night at 6:00 PM.