Austin, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team overcame two early unearned runs with more late-inning magic as the Cru topped Howard Payne University 4-3 in 11 innings in the opening game of the American Southwest Conference Tournament Wednesday in Austin. UMHB improves to 26-15 on the season with the victory. The Yellow Jackets fall to 19-22 on the year with the loss.
Howard Payne took advantage of two hits and a Cru error to take a 1-0 lead on John Elmore's RBI double in the top of the first inning. The Yellow Jackets added another unearned run in the top of the fourth to make it 2-0. Heath Spencer singled home Chase Burrow in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to 2-1. Howard Payne would push it to 3-1 in the top of the seventh when Lucas Creed singled, stole second and scored on two UMHB errors on the stolen base attempt. It would stay that way into the bottom of the eighth inning. Zack Whiddon led off with a single, stole second and scored on Burrow's single. Burrow advanced to third on an error before he scored on Tyler Taute's RBI single to tie the game at 3-3. Dakota Parsons ripped a ground-rule double to left-center with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but UMHB could not score and the game went to extra innings. Both teams went quietly in the tenth inning and Howard Payne went in order in the 11th. With two outs in the bottom of the 11th, K.J. Stark doubled off the wall in left field and Parsons drew a walk. Rob Loewe then lined a single over the second baseman's head to score Stark and give the Cru the walk-off victory.
Aaron Barteau earned the win to move to 6-1 on the season. He struck out five and allowed just one hit in three innings of relief work. Ethan Ferrel took the loss for Howard Payne to fall to 1-3 on the year after giving up the game-winning run on three hits in two and a third innings of work. Parsons led the Cru offense with three hits and Parsons and Taute added three hits apiece to lead UMHB's 11 hit attack. Creed had four hits and Elmore added three more as HPU banged out 10 hits in the game. The Cru committed four errors in the game and did not allow an earned run in the contest.
The Cru will return to action with a winner's bracket game at 4:00 PM on Thursday. UMHB will face the winner of today's U.T.-Tyler/Concordia Texas game in that contest. The double-elimination tournament runs through Sunday and is being played at Tornado Field on the campus of Concordia Texas. The ASC Tournament Champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships.