Tyler, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team cruised into the eighth inning with a lead, but the Cru was undone by Louisiana College's seven-run outburst as the Wildcats topped UMHB 8-3 in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament Saturday in Tyler. The loss eliminates the Cru from the tournament and ends the season at 22-18. Louisiana College stays alive in the tournament and improves to 20-21 on the year with the victory.
The Wildcats took a 1-0 lead on Ashton Martin's RBI single in the top of the second inning. UMHB tied the game on Ty Johnson's long solo homer in the bottom of the third and the Cru took a 2-1 lead when Mark Frankhouser scored on a Wildcat error in the bottom of the fourth. UMHB had chances to extend the lead but left four runners on base in the fourth and fifth innings. It would stay 2-1 into the top of the eighth before Louisiana College erupted for seven runs. Seth Stevens doubled home two runs and came home on Duncan Cornfoot's checked-swing single to make it 4-2 Wildcats. Steven Pizano added an RBI single and Sully Martin's squeeze bunt brought home another run, three UMHB throwing errors allowed two more runs to score to give LC an 8-2 edge. Emery Atkisson singled home a run in the bottom of the eighth to close the gap to 8-3, but that was as close as the Cru would get as UMHB left a pair of runners on base in the bottom of the ninth.
Aaron Barteau took the loss for UMHB to drop to 2-1 after giving up four of the runs in the eighth. Casey Frazier allowed just four hits and one run over the first seven innings for the Cru. Mitch Patterson had three hits for UMHB and Johnson added two more as the Cru rapped out nine base hits in the contest. The Cru committed five errors and left 11 runners on base in the loss. Carson Bolyer picked up the win for LC to raise his record to 2-1 on the year. Walt Aldridge had three hits for the Wildcats and Cornfoot and Sully Martin added two hits apiece.
UMHB was appearing in the ASC Tournament for the fourth time in the last five seasons after being picked to finish tenth in the league in the ASC Preseason Coaches' Poll. The loss also closes out the UMHB playing careers of Cru seniors Emery Atkisson, Aaron Barteau, Seth Hill, Ty Johnson, Nathan Kent and Tyler Nelson.