MARSHALL, Texas – Taking the highly anticipated NCAA Division III Region 10 series, #6 East Texas Baptist University split the double header with #14 University of La Verne on Saturday. ETBU won the pitching dual in the first game of the day, 3-1, but fell in the final game of the series, 10-5. ETBU is now 11-4 overall.

In two games, ETBU had 15 hits with two doubles. Nicolas Chavez led the team with four hits while Dylan Burnaman and Jacob Evangelista both had three hits. Brett Wagner and Carson Wilson added two RBI as Chavez, Evangelista, and Connor Massimini added one RBI.

Sayers Collins won the pitcher's duel in game one against ULV's Gerald Terry as the top two arms in the region battled it out over seven innings. Collins went eight innings allowing no runs, only two hits, and recorded four strikeouts moving to 4-0 on the year. He has now pitched 27 innings without giving up a run. Robert Croft finished the final inning earning his second save of the year with one strikeout, two hits, and one earned run. ULV's Terry went seven innings and had nine strikeouts but gave up eight hits and three earned runs.

The final game brought several pitchers for both teams as ETBU used six pitchers and ULV four. Jacob Sherman received the loss going three innings and giving up two runs. ETBU had nine strikeouts in the game as Tate Sloan, Landry Powell, and Hayden Robichaux all had two strikeouts.

Game 1

ETBU 3, ULV 1

Collins retired the first seven batters of the game and had a no-hitter through five innings before giving up a hit in the sixth inning. He finished with four strikeouts and eight shutout innings retiring the side in the first, second, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth inning.

Evangelista and Burnaman led with two hits. Evangelista had one RBI with a home run and Wilson added two RBI on a single.

Five scoreless innings took place to start the game but it was Evangelista that found a way to break the scoring silence. Leading off the sixth inning, Evangelista took the second pitch from ULV's Terry over the right centerfield fence for a 1-0 lead. Collins then retired the side in the top of seventh and eighth innings as ETBU held onto the one-run lead.

 Burnaman started off the eighth with a single up the middle and then Evangelista doubled to right centerfield setting up Wilson for at-bat. Wilson followed with a hard-hit ball in the infield to ULV's third baseball who couldn't quite get to it in time as both Burnaman and Evangelista scored for a 3-0 lead. Terry was relieved after that sequence and ULV figured out a way to get out of the inning with no more damage done as ETBU headed to the top of the ninth up three runs. Croft came in and gave up one run but the final two batters of the inning grounded out and flew out for the win.

Game 2

ULV 10, ETBU 5

ETBU played from behind the entire game as ULV took a 3-0 lead before going up 10-1 in the seventh inning. ETBU scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to five but came no closer.

Sherman went three innings giving up two earned runs and four hits with one strikeout for the loss. Peyton Miller followed going two innings with one strikeout and two earned runs. Matthew Irwin then went 0.2 innings with one strikeout and three runs. Sloan then went 1.1 innings giving up three earned runs as Powell and Robichaux finished the final two innings not allowing any hits or runs combining for four strikeouts.

ETBU had seven hits as Chavez went 3-of-3 with one RBI. Wagner added two RBI and Massimini had one RBI.

Down 3-0 in the fourth inning, Wagner stole home on a double steal for the first run to cut the lead to two, 3-1. ULV then scored one run in the fifth, three in the sixth, and three in the seventh for the 10-1 lead. Wagner brought in two runs in the seventh on a single to left field and then Chavez doubled in a run to make it 10-4. Massimini finished out the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

ETBU will host #17 Trinity University on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. This will be fourth nationally ranked team that ETBU will face this season.