Pineville, Louisiana – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team rallied in the late innings of both games as the Cru swept a doubleheader from Louisiana College Friday night in Pineville. UMHB won 5-2 and 9-6 to improve to 21-16 overall and 15-8 in American Southwest Conference play on the season.
UMHB rallied late to take a 5-2 victory in game one. The game was a scoreless pitcher's duel into the bottom of the fourth inning before the Wildcats grabbed a 2-0 lead. The Cru answered with three runs in the top of the fifth. Landon Dieterich drew a bases loaded walk to score the first run and two more runs scored on an LC error. Austin Blanford's two run triple gave UMHB some breathing room in the top of the seventh inning. The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the frame, but Aaron Barteau coaxed a double play to end the threat and record his 12th save of the season. Jackson Godoy picked up his first win of the season in relief of starter Casey Frazier. Four UMHB pitchers combined to limit LC to five hits in the game. Five different players had hits for the Cru. Bo Ockman took the loss for the Wildcats to drop to 0-1 on the year.
UMHB grabbed an early lead in game two. The Cru put five runs on the board in the top of the first inning. Dieterich's RBI double opened the scoring and Blanford followed with a sacrifice fly. Caleb Davis singled home a run and Josh Horton drew a bases loaded walk. Robbie Gillen closed out the scoring with an RBI fielder's choice. The Wildcats scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the first and then added two more runs in the bottom of the third. LC tied the game with another unearned run in the bottom of the fifth. UMHB retook the lead with four runs in the top of the seventh. Blanford and Mark Frankhouser both scored on a throwing error, Caleb Davis came in to score on another Wildcat miscue and Dieterich singled home a run to make it 9-5 Cru. Louisiana College cut the gap to 9-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning. UMHB loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, but could not push across an insurance run. Connor Heussner set down LC in order in the bottom of the inning to close it out. Heussner scattered seven hits and allowed just one earned run over six and two-thirds innings of relief work to get the win and raise his record to 1-4. Dieterich had three hits and Frankhouser added two more to lead the Cru's 11-hit attack. The Wildcats had 15 hits as a team, but committed five costly errors in the contest. Austin Thompson took the loss to drop to 2-5 on the season for LC.
The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM single game on Saturday. That will also be the regular season finale for both teams. The Cru has already clinched a berth in the ASC Championship Tournament.