Georgetown, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could not overcome a nightmare eighth inning as the Cru dropped a 10-5 decision to Southwestern University Tuesday night in Georgetown. UMHB falls to 10-18 on the season with its sixth straight loss. The Pirates improve to 10-19 on the year with the victory.
Southwestern jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Ethan Luna blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning. Robbie Gillen scored on a throwing error in the top of the third inning as UMHB cut the lead to 2-1. Dakota Parsons gave UMHB its first lead of the game with a two-run double in the top of the fifth to make it 3-2 Cru. Chase Burrow drew a two-out walk in the top of the eighth, stole second and scored on Cody Stone's RBI double to give UMHB a 4-2 advantage. The Pirates took advantage of two Cru errors and a walk to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth. A bases loaded walk cut the lead to 4-3 and Ben Little singled home the tying run to even it at 4-4. Tyler Bludau drew another bases loaded walk to put Southwestern up 5-4 and a fielder's choice RBI made it 6-4 Pirates. Back-to-back walks chased home another run to stretch it to 7-4 and a run-scoring wild pitch gave the Pirates an 8-4 edge. Will Cates followed with a two-run single to take the lead out to 10-4 to close out an eight-run inning. UMHB committed three errors, walked six batters and threw a wild pitch in the frame. Seth Martin's RBI infield single cut the lead to 10-5 but the Cru would leave the bases loaded in the top of the ninth as Southwestern closed it out for the win.
Tyler Nelson took the loss for UMHB to drop to 0-2 on the year. Nelson scattered seven hits, struck out three and allowed four earned runs in a career-best seven and a third innings of work. Stone finished with three hits and Martin added two more to account for half of the Cru's ten hits in the contest. Cates was the only player with two hits for Southwestern as the Pirates were limited to nine hits by UMHB pitching. Riley Wayland earned the win for Southwestern to improve to 1-2 on the year.
The Cru will return to American Southwest Conference play with a three-game home series against Hardin-Simmons University this weekend. The two teams will face off for a 7:00 PM single game on Friday before closing out the series with a 12:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday at Red Murff Field.