Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used a huge late comeback to win game two as the Cru split a doubleheader with U.T.-Tyler Saturday afternoon in Belton. The Patriots won game one 10-3 before the Cru answered with a 9-8 victory in game two. UMHB is now 6-1 overall and 5-1 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. U.T.-Tyler moves to 4-8 overall and 2-4 in the ASC on the year with Saturday's split.
The Cru fell behind early before storming back with five runs in the final two innings of a 9-8 walk-off win in game two. U.T.-Tyler led 2-1 before putting up four runs in the top of the second inning. K.J. Stark's RBI double in the fourth cut it to 6-2 and Tripp Reeves drove in a run with a fielder's choice in the fifth to make it 6-3. The Patriots tacked on two in top of the sixth, but a run-scoring double play pulled UMHB to within 8-4 in the bottom of that inning. The Cru would tie it up with a four-run eighth. Zack Whiddon doubled home the first two runs, Chase Burrow singled home another and Reeves' two-out RBI single tied it at 8-8. Aaron Barteau shut down U.T.-Tyler in the top of the ninth. Stark then reached on a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth, stole second and scored when Dakota Parsons' hard-hit grounder deflected off the shoulder of Patriot shortstop Doug Kinsey to set off a celebration at home plate. Stark had three hits and scored three runs to lead the Cru and Parsons, Ty Johnson, Reeves and Will Stafford added two hits apiece for UMHB. Barteau earned the win to move to 2-0 on the season. Warren Neely had three hits and drove in five runs for the Patriots while Justin Sheets took the loss to fall to 1-1 on the year.
The Patriots broke open game one with a six-run fourth inning on the way to a 10-3 victory. U.T.-Tyler scored a pair of runs in the second to go up 2-0 before erupting in the fourth. Kevan House's two-run homer was the biggest hit of the frame for the Patriots. UMHB would chip away with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Robert Loewe singled home the first run and Tyler Taute singled home two more. U.T.-Tyler would add two insurance runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach. The Cru was held to five hits in the game. Nick Bergmann took the loss to drop to 1-1 despite giving up just one earned run in three innings of work.
UMHB will return to action with a 6:00 PM non-conference game against DeSales University Monday night in San Antonio. The Cru will then travel to Alpine for a key, three-game ASC series at Sul Ross State next weekend.