Abilene, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team seems to have found its magic number as the Cru scored twice in the tenth innings to post a 9-7 victory over Hardin-Simmons in ten innings Friday evening in Abilene. UMHB has now won back-to-back games by identical 9-7 scores thanks to late rallies
UMHB grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Landon Dieterich singled with two outs and then stole second base. He came around to score on Mitch Patterson's single to center field. The Cru tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth. Caleb Davis singled home Austin Blanford with the first run, Ty Johnson scored on Robbie Gillen's RBI fielder's choice and Dakota Best single home Gillen to stretch the lead to 4-0. The Cowboys put three on the board in the bottom of the sixth and added two in the seventh to grab a 5-4 lead. Mark Frankhouser tied the game with an RBI double in the top of the eighth and scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball. Austin Blanford added a run-scoring single to make it 7-5 UMHB. Colton Parker's two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth tied the game and sent it to extra innings. Blanford singled home the go-ahead run off HSU closer Tyler Colling in the top of the tenth and scored an insurance run on Jackson Godoy's RBI single. Aaron Barteau set the Cowboys down in order in the bottom of the tenth.
Barteau (1-0) picked up his first win of the year for UMHB. Nathan Kent scattered seven hits and three earned runs over six and two-thirds innings for the Cru. Dieterich, Patterson and Blanford all had three hits apiece to lead UMHB and Blanford drove in two runs. The Cru rapped out 15 hits off five HSU pitchers. Cooling to the loss to drop to 0-1 for the Cowboys. Five players had two hits apiece for Hardin-Simmons, but the rest of the order combined for just two hits in the loss.
UMHB is now 3-5 overall and 1-0 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. Hardin-Simmons drops to 4-7 overall and 1-3 in the ASC on the year. The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday in Abilene. UMHB will then return home to host East Texas Baptist for a three-game ASC series at Red Murff Field next weekend.