Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team responded each time Texas Lutheran put runs on the board and the Cru posted a 7-4 victory over the 23rd ranked Bulldogs Tuesday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 8-10 on the season with the victory. The loss drops TLU to 14-8 on the year.

The Bulldogs grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Cru answered with three runs in the bottom of that frame. Austin Blanford singled home the first run and Ty Johnson followed with a two-run double to give UMHB a 3-1 edge. TLU tied the game with two runs in the top of the fifth inning, but the Cru grabbed the lead back when Mark Frankhouser tripled and scored on a Bulldog error in the bottom of that inning. Emery Atkisson tripled and scored on Caleb Davis' suicide squeeze in the bottom of the sixth and UMHB stretched it to 6-3 on Mitch Patterson's RBI single in the bottom of the seventh. Texas Lutheran cut it to 6-4 on a UMHB throwing error in the top of the eighth, but the Cru tacked on an insurance run on Kenny Foster's RBI single in the bottom of that frame. Aaron Barteau set TLU down in order in the top of the ninth to preserve the victory for UMHB.

Johnson earned the win on the mound for the Cru to move to 1-0 after giving up two earned runs in five innings. Barteau notched his fourth save of the season. Patterson and Landon Dieterich led UMHB with two hits apiece. Landon Weatherly took the loss for Texas Lutheran to drop to 1-1 on the year. Eric Rabinowitz had two of the Bulldogs' seven hits in the contest.

UMHB will continue its home stand with a three-game series against McMurry University this weekend. The Cru and War Hawks will open the series with a 7:00 PM single game on Friday before closing out the weekend with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday.