Georgetown, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team took an early lead and then capitalized on six Southwestern University errors as the Cru posted an 8-7 victory over the Pirates Tuesday night in Georgetown. UMHB improves to 10-8 on the season with the victory. The loss drops Southwestern to 11-9 on the year.
The Cru jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Tripp Reeves singled home a run and scored on Max Conway's sacrifice bunt in the top of the second. The Pirates tied it up with two runs in the bottom of the second. Reeves singled home two more runs and Chase Burrow scored on a wild pitch in the top of the third as UMHB stretched the lead to 5-2. Two Pirate home runs in the bottom of the fourth cut the lead to 5-4, but the Cru took advantage of two errors in the top of the sixth to add a run. Southwestern grabbed a 7-6 lead when Will Cates tripled home a run and scored on Ben Little's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh and Clayton Sparks added an RBI double to plate the go-ahead run. The Pirates committed another costly error with two outs in the top of the eighth as UMHB scored two runs on the play to take an 8-7 lead. Southwestern put the tying run at third base in the bottom of the eighth and at second base in the top of the ninth, but could not push across a run in either frame.
Jon Franz earned the win for the Cru to move to 1-0 on the year. Franz allowed one hit and a run in one and two-thirds innings. He struck out two and walked one. Cory Farr pitched the ninth inning for UMHB to notch his first save of the year. Reeves and Rob Loewe had two hits apiece for the Cru in a 10-hit team effort. Collin Buckley took the loss for Southwestern to drop to 1-1 on the season. Austyn Laird had two of the Pirates nine hits in the game.
The Cru will now return home to host Louisiana College for a three-game American Southwest Conference series this weekend at Red Murff Field. The two teams will open the series with a 4:00 PM doubleheader on Friday before closing out the weekend with a 12:00 PM single game on Saturday.