Box Score Box Score
Clinton, MS – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team could not answer Mississippi College's nine-run seventh inning as the Cru dropped a 15-7 decision to the Choctaws in the opening game of an American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament first round series Friday in Clinton. The Cru falls to 22-18 on the season with the loss. The Choctaws improve to 33-7 on the year with the victory.
The Cru grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on
Andrew White's RBI double and
Josh Fredrick's RBI single. The Choctaws answered with two in the bottom of the first and added three more in the third to take a 5-2 lead. UMHB would cut it to 5-4 on a run-scoring passed ball and a run-scoring wild pitch in the top of the fourth, but MC added a run in the bottom of the frame to make it 6-4.
Josh Shaw's RBI single in the top of the fifth pulled the Cru to within 6-5 and UMHB took a 7-6 lead on Fredrick's sacrifice fly and a
Seth Lynn RBI single in the top of the seventh. MC then put the game out of reach with the nine-run seventh. The Choctaws had eight hits and also took advantage of two UMHB errors in the big inning.
Jared Hopper took the loss for UMHB to drop to 7-3 on the season. Hopper gave up 16 hits and 10 earned runs in six and a third innings. He struck out five and walked four. Tyler Seaman picked up the win for the Choctaws to move to 10-0. Seaman gave up 12 hits and seven runs in seven innings.
Joseph Villegas, White,
Chris Joshlin, Fredrick,
Morgan Sloan and Lynn all had two hits apiece for the Cru in the loss.
The two teams will return to action with an 11:00 AM start tomorrow. If UMHB wins that game, it will force a winner-take-all game 30 minutes after completion of the first game. The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the Championship Round of the ASC Tournament next weekend at the highest remaining West Division seed.
