Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, but could not hold on in extra innings as the Cru fell to Schreiner University 5-4 in 11 innings Friday night in Belton. UMHB drops to 16-17 overall and 8-8 in American Southwest Conference West Division play with the loss. Schreiner improves to 10-25 overall and 3-10 in the ASC West with the victory.
Schreiner opened the scoring with an unearned run in the top of the third inning. UMHB tied it with Chase Burrow's RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. It would stay that way into the seventh before Marco Carreon led off with a solo homer that bounced off the top of the left field fence and went over. The Mountaineers added another unearned run in that frame to make it 3-1. A two-out error in the top of the eighth led to another unearned run and a 4-1 Schreiner lead. Robert Loewe's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth pulled UMHB to within 4-2, but the Cru left two runners on base in the inning. Heath Spencer blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and the Cru put the potential game-winning run at second base but back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat. Schreiner put runners at first and third in the top if the tenth inning, but Sam VanHoozer pitched his way out of that jam. Curt Jaeger's two-out, infield RBI single gave the Mountaineers a 5-4 lead in the top of the eleventh. UMHB then went down in order in the bottom of the inning.
VanHoozer took the loss to fall to 0-3 on the year despite not giving up an earned run in one a two-thirds innings of work. Ian Ekery struck out 10 and surrendered just one earned run in seven innings of work. Burrow, Garrett Webb and Chris Florack had two hits apiece for UMHB. Charlie Stewart earned the win to move to 1-2 for the Mountaineers and Carreon topped Schreiner with four hits.
The two teams will close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday. That doubleheader will also close out ASC West Division play for the Cru. UMHB can clinch a berth in the ASC Championship Tournament by sweeping the Mountaineers on Saturday.