Longview, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team surrendered two big innings in the early going and could not dig out of that early hole in a 15-4 loss to LeTourneau University Friday night in Longview. The loss knocks UMHB out of a tie for second place in the American Southwest Conference as the Cru falls to 23-12 overall and 17-11 in ASC play on the year. The Yellowjackets take over sole possession of second in conference with the win and improve to 24-11 overall and 18-10 in ASC play on the year.

LeTourneau took advantage of five hits and a pair of costly UMHB errors to put five runs on the board in the bottom of the second to take a 5-0 lead. Four of those runs were unearned. The Yellowjackets added a run in the third and exploded for seven runs in the fourth to build a 13-0 lead. The Cru cut it to 13-3 on K.J. Stark's RBI groundout, Cole Hill's RBI single and Rob Loewe's sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth. Chase Burrow scored on an error in the top of the sixth inning to pull UMHB to within 13-4, but LeTourneau scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to provide the final margin.

Ian Ekery took the loss for UMHB to drop to 5-3 on the year after giving up five runs, just one of them earned, in two innings of work. Will Stafford had two of the Cru's eight hits in the loss. UMHB also committed five errors as a team. Curt Copeland scattered seven hits over seven innings to raise his record to 6-2 for the Yellowjackets. Garrett Methvin and Chris Bertram had three hits apiece to lead LeTourneau's 15-hit attack.

The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday in Longview. UMHB will then return home to close out the regular season with a three-game series against first-place Concordia Texas next weekend at Red Murff Field.