Mary Haridin-Baylor Athletics

Game One Box Score

Game Two Box Score

Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team stormed back from an early deficit only to watch the game slip away in extra innings and the Cru settled for a doubleheader split with Howard Payne University Saturday afternoon in Belton. UMHB fell 12-9 in 11 innings in game two after posting a 4-3 victory in game one. The Cru is now 17-19 overall and 7-11 in American Southwest Conference West Division play following the split. Howard Payne moves to 12-20 overall and 7-11 in the ASC West on the season.

 

UMHB held off a late rally to post a 4-3 victory in game one. Howard Payne took a 1-0 lead on Ben Butler's solo homer in the top of the second and pushed it to 2-0 on Taylor Zambreski's sacrifice fly in the top of the third. UMHB tied the game on Chris Joshlin's RBI single and a run-scoring error in the bottom of the third. The Cru took a 3-2 lead when Seth Lynn scored on a balk in the fourth and moved it to 4-2 on Zach Crosswhite's RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. Dustin Cole would draw a bases loaded walk in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 4-3 but Andy Evans came on to strike out Kevin Young with the bases loaded to end the threat and preserve the win. Evans earned his first save of the season. Cameron Graham picked up the win to move to 3-4 on the season. Jonathan Morris took the loss to drop to 0-5 for the Yellow Jackets. Braden Embry had two hits for the Cru and Butler had two hits for Howard Payne.

 

UMHB fought back from a four-run seventh inning deficit to tie game two, but the Cru could not overcome HPU's three-run 11^th inning in a 12-9 loss. The Yellow Jackets scored two runs in the first, second and third innings and took a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Joshlin and Embry had RBI singles in that frame to pull UMHB to within 6-4, but Howard Payne used Will Garlick's RBI double and Sam Dollahite's two-run homer to push the lead back to 9-4. Zach Young's RBI single cut the lead to 9-5 in the fifth and UMHB pulled to within 9-8 with a three-run seventh inning. Joshlin's sacrifice fly drove in the first run, Embry added an RBI single and Logan Pratt walked with the bases loaded. A fielder's choice would end the inning with the Cru unable to push across the tying run. That wouldn't come until the bottom of the ninth when Crosswhite delivered a pinch-hit, two-out RBI single to tie the game at nine and send it to extra innings. Ryan Abbott's RBI single in the 11^th gave the Yellow Jackets and 10-9 and Zambreski added some insurance with a two-run double. UMHB would put two runners on the bottom of the 11^th, but a double play and fly out ended the threat and the game. Ricky Brenek was charged with the loss to drop to 0-3 for the Cru. Corey Howie picked up the win in relief to raise his record to 4-1 on the year. Brenek, Young, Joshlin and Embry all had three hits apiece for UMHB. Jordan Hammontree had five hits for HPU and Butler added three more.

 

The Cru will now travel to Alpine next weekend to close out the regular season with a three-game series at Sul Ross State. The two teams will open the series with a 3:00 PM doubleheader on Thursday before closing out the weekend with a 2:00 PM single game on Friday. Today's doubleheader marked the final home games in the careers of UMHB seniors Reinaldo Araujo and Ricky Brenek.