Brownwood, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team exploded for seven runs in the third inning and then held on for a 9-8 game two victory to salvage a split of a doubleheader with Howard Payne Saturday in Brownwood. UMHB fell 9-4 in game one on the day. The Cru is now 6-8 overall and 2-4 in American Southwest Conference play on the season while Howard Payne moves to 6-5 overall and 2-4 in ASC play on the year.
UMHB's seven-run third inning put the Cru up early and the team held on for that 9-8 win in game two. Scott Stephens' sacrifice fly made it 1-0 UMHB in the top of the first and Seth Martin added an RBI single in the second to make it 2-0. HPU tied it with two runs in the bottom of that inning before the Cru erupted in the top of the third. Cody Stone's two-run double opened the scoring, Robbie Gillen added an RBI groundout, Will Stafford and Martin followed with RBI triples, Riley Davis singled home a run and Chase Burrow closed it out with an RBI double. The Yellow Jackets put four runs on the board in the bottom of the third to pull to within 9-6 and HPU added single runs in the fourth and sixth to make it 9-8. The tying run would reach base in the bottom of the ninth, but Cory Farr pitched out of his for his fifth save of the year for UMHB. Stuart Hennigar earned the win for the Cru to move to 2-0 on the year. Martin had three hits and Burrow, Stone and Caleb Davis added two hits each as UMHB pounded out 14 hits as a team.
UMHB could not overcome three straight multiple run innings for the Yellow Jackets in the 9-4 loss in game one. The Cru jumped out to a 2-0 lead on RBI singles from Burrow in the first inning and Martin in the second. Howard Payne answered with a three-run second and added two runs in both the third and fourth innings for a 7-2 lead. Emery Atkisson's RBI fielder's choice cut it to 7-3 in the fifth, but the Yellow Jackets added single runs in their next two at-bats for a 9-3 lead. Mitch Patterson walked with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to cut it to 9-4, but the Cru would leave the bases loaded to end the threat. Seth Hill took the loss to fall to 1-3 despite giving up just three earned runs in four innings. Burrow had two of the Cru's nine hits in the loss.
UMHB is scheduled to take on DeSales University in a 2:00 PM single game in San Antonio on Monday. The Cru will then return home to play four non-conference games in three days next weekend.