Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team stunned first-place Concordia with a five-run first inning and then held on to post a 9-7 victory over the Tornados Friday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 25-13 overall and 19-12 in American Southwest Conference play on the season with the victory. The loss drops Concordia to 25-12 overall and 20-10 in the ASC on the year.
UMHB erupted for five runs in the first, knocking out Concordia starter Kiel Harmon just three batters into the game. Chase Burrow doubled home the first two runs, Tyler Taute added an RBI single and Will Stafford doubled home the final run of the frame. Concordia put four on the board in the top of the second to cut it to 5-4. Jon McManemin's two-run double was the biggest hit in that inning. The Cru stretched the lead to 8-4 on Heath Spencer's two-run single and a run-scoring wild pitch in the bottom of the second. Garreth Hutton singled home a run and McManemin added an RBI groundout in the third to pull the Tornados to within 8-6. Burrow's RBI single in the bottom of the third make it 9-6 UMHB and the Tornados closed out the scoring on Connor Bertsch's RBI single in the top of the fourth. Danny Horstman, Riley Davis and Aaron Barteau shut down Concordia the rest of the way to preserve the victory.
Horstman earned the win with four innings of one-hit relief to improve to 3-1. He struck out a career-high six batters. Barteau struck out four in an inning and two-thirds to close it out and notch his seventh save of the year. Harmon took the loss for Concordia to drop to 5-1 on the year. Burrow and Zack Whiddon had two hits apiece for UMHB and Burrow drove in three runs. Garrett Benyo had two of Concordia's nine hits in the game and McManemin drove in three runs for the Tornados. Concordia entered the game leading the nation in ERA, but six pitchers combined to give up eight earned runs in the loss.
The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday at Red Murff Field. It will be senior day for three UMHB seniors. The Cru has already locked up at least a #4 seed in the ASC Championship Tournament, but UMHB could finish as high as the #1 seed depending on Saturday's results.