Georgetown, Texas – A five-run third inning was more than the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could overcome as the Cru fell to Southwestern University 11-8 Tuesday night in Georgetown. UMHB drops to 10-12 on the season with the loss. The Pirates move to 13-13 on the year with the victory.
The Cru grabbed a 2-0 lead on Landon Dieterich's RBI single and Ty Johnson's RBI groundout in the top of the first inning. Southwestern scored once in the bottom of the first and twice more in the bottom of the second for a 3-2 lead. The Pirates then bunched four hits and a walk and made the most of two costly UMHB errors in the bottom of the third in a five-run burst to take an 8-2 lead. Johnson blasted a solo homer, his third home run in the last two games to cut it to 8-3 in the top of the fourth. Josh Horton and Caleb Davis drew bases loaded walks in the top of the sixth to cut the gap to 8-5. Southwestern pushed across two more unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 10-5. UMHB scored on a Pirate error in the top of the seventh to make it 10-6, but Southwestern answered with a run in the bottom of that frame to take it out to 11-6. Dieterich singled home one run in the top of the ninth and Patterson singled home another to make it 11-8, but that's as close as the Cru would get.
Patterson led the UMHB offense with three hits and Dieterich added two more. Johnson scored three runs and drove in two, but took the loss on the mound to drop to 1-1 on the year. Connor Heussner struck out seven, scattered four hits and allowed just one earned run in five and two-thirds innings of work for the Cru. Ethan Hallmark had four hits and drove in four runs for the Pirates. Tyler Polasek earned the win to move to 2-1 on the year for Southwestern. The two teams combined to commit 11 errors in the game.
UMHB returns home for a return to American Southwest Conference play this weekend. The Cru will host Belhaven University for a three-game ASC series at Red Murff Field on Friday and Saturday. Those games will count in the ASC standings even though Belhaven is not yet a full member of NCAA Division III.