Brownwood, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team put five runs on the board in the top of the fifth and then held off Howard Payne's comeback bid in the final innings as the Cru posted a 9-8 victory over the Yellow Jackets Friday in Brownwood. UMHB improves to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in American Southwest Conference play with the victory. The loss drops HPU to 5-4 overall and 1-3 in ASC play on the year.
The Cru jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Dakota Parsons two-run triple in the top of the third inning. Howard Payne answered with three runs in the bottom of the third for a 3-2 lead and added another tally in the fourth to make it 4-2. UMHB put up a five spot in the top of the fifth to take the lead for good. Scott Stephens drove in the first run with a ground ball, Max Conway added a two-run single and Cody Stone tripled home two more runs to give the Cru a 7-4 lead. HPU cut it to 7-5 in the bottom of the sixth before Seth Martin and Riley Davis singled home runs in the top of the seventh to give UMHB a 9-5 edge. A sacrifice fly and bases loaded walk pulled the Yellow Jackets to within 9-7 in the bottom of the seventh. Howard Payne took advantage of a Cru error in the bottom of the ninth to close the gap to 9-8 and had the tying run on base before Cory Farr came on to get the final out and nail down his fourth save of the year.
Aaron Barteau earned the win for UMHB to move to 1-0. Barteau struck out six, walked three and allowed just two earned runs on seven hits in five and two-thirds innings of work. Kyle Ramon gave up seven runs in six innings to take the loss for HPU and drop to 0-2 on the year. Conway, Martin, Davis and Will Stafford had two hits apiece for the Cru. Blake Laney and Seth Dohrman had three hits each for the Yellow Jackets, but the rest of the team combined for just four more as UMHB out hit HPU 13-10 in the game.
The two teams close out the series with a noon doubleheader on Saturday in Brownwood. The Cru will hit the road once again for a non-conference game against DeSales University Monday afternoon in San Antonio.