Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team blew the game open with an eight-run third inning and the Cru rolled to a 12-4 victory over Southwestern University Wednesday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 6-6 on the year and the Cru has won five of its last six contests. The loss drops the Pirates to 5-7 on the season.

K.J. Stark gave UMHB an early lead when he homered leading off the bottom of the first inning. It would stay that way until the Cru erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the third. Dakota Parsons and Rob Loewe each walked with the bases loaded to force in runs, a wild pitch and passed ball combined to score two more runs, Tripp Reeves singled home a run, two runs scored on an error and UMHB added a run on another wild pitch. Southwestern scored single runs in the fourth and sixth and put two on the board in the top of the seventh to close the gap to 9-4. Stark then blasted a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to close out the scoring.

Stark and Heath Spencer had two hits apiece for the Cru and Stark drove in four runs and scored three. Casey Frazier picked up his first collegiate victory with two perfect innings as the first of ten UMHB pitchers used in the game. Colten Shea had three hits and Will Cates added two more for the Pirates. Clayton Haag took the loss for Southwestern to drop to 1-1 on the year.

The Cru will return to action with a pair of non-conference road games at McMurry University this weekend in Abilene. The two teams will face off for a 7:00 PM start on Friday before closing out the weekend with a 2:00 PM single game on Saturday.