Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could not overcome three multiple-run innings as the Cru fell to Hardin-Simmons 8-5 Friday night in Belton. UMHB drops to 10-19 overall and 5-11 in American Southwest Conference play with the loss. The Cowboys improve to 17-11 overall and 11-5 in the ASC on the year with the victory.
HSU opened the game with four consecutive hits to grab a 2-0 lead and added a single run in the second for a 3-0 lead. Two RBI infield singles stretched that lead to 5-0 in the top of the third inning and the Cowboys went up 6-0 with a single run in the top of the fourth. UMHB finally put runs on the board on Cody Stone's RBI double and Max Conway's RBI single in the bottom of the fourth. Seth Martin tripled home a run and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of fifth as the Cru pulled to within 6-4. Hardin-Simmons would add runs on Colson Craddick's RBI double and a run-scoring wild pitch in the top of the seventh. UMHB cut it to 8-5 on a run-scoring error in the bottom of the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, but could not push across another run.
Seth Hill took the loss for the Cru to drop to 2-5 on the season. Chase Burrow and Will Stafford had two hits apiece to lead the UMHB offense. Kyle Barnett earned the win for HSU to move to 3-0 and Taylor Cooling tied a school record with his 10th save of the year for the Cowboys. Zack de Luna had five hits for HSU and Craddick added three doubles as the Cowboys left 17 runners on base in the contest.
The two teams will close out the series with a noon doubleheader on Saturday. UMHB will then play a non-conference game at Trinity University next Tuesday before having the following weekend off.