Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team gave up four first-inning runs and never really recovered as the Cru fell to Denison University 20-8 Sunday afternoon in Belton. The loss drops UMHB to 7-11 on the season. The Big Red improves to 4-0 on the season with the victory.

Denison put four runs on the board in the top of the first inning, but the Cru answered with thee in the bottom of that frame. Cody Stone singled home the first run and an error brought home the second. Max Conway added an RBI double to close out the scoring. The Big Red would add three runs in the fourth and six more in the fifth to take control of the game. Denison scored four more runs in the seventh for a 17-3 lead. UMHB posted its second three run inning of the day in the bottom of the seventh as Chase Burrow doubled home two runs and Stone added an RBI groundout. The Big Red scored three in the top of the ninth for a 20-6 edge. A Dakota Parsons sacrifice fly and Stone RBI single in the bottom of the ninth cut it to the final margin.

Parsons had three hits for the Cru and Burrow, Stone, Seth Martin and Will Stafford added two hits apiece. Stone drove in three runs and Burrow had two more. Connor Heussner took the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season. Jack Blanchard had six hits, drove in five runs and added four runs scored for the Big Red. Eric Zmuda had four hits and Noah Hahn and Evan Flax added three hits apiece. Zmuda also drove in five runs and Flax had four RBI. Zack Huarte picked up the win after giving up seven hits and three runs in six innings of work.

UMHB will continue its home stand with a three-game conference series against University of the Ozarks on Friday and Saturday. The two teams will open the weekend with a 4:00 PM doubleheader on Friday before closing out the series with a noon single game on Saturday.