Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used a huge offensive inning to win game one and timely hitting late to take game two as the Cru swept a doubleheader from Louisiana College Friday night in Belton. UMHB won 17-7 and 6-3 to improve to 12-8 overall and 9-5 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. The Wildcats drop to 6-15 overall and 4-13 in the ASC on the year with the two losses.
The Cru exploded for ten runs in the bottom of the third inning on the way to a 17-7 game one victory. UMHB took a 3-0 lead when Tripp Reeves doubled home two runs and then scored on an error in the bottom of the first inning. LC cut it to 3-2 in the top of the third before UMHB erupted in the bottom of the frame. The Cru bunched eight hits and took advantage of three Wildcat errors. Rob Loewe and Chase Burrow both had two run hits in the inning. Louisiana College scored two in the fifth, but UMHB answered with three more in the bottom of the inning. Seth Martin, Josh Cruz and Will Stafford drove in those runs for the Cru. LC scored two in the sixth before UMHB got a run on Cole Haag's pinch-hit RBI double. The Wildcats closed out the scoring with a single run in the top of the seventh. Seth Hill earned the win for the Cru to move to 3-1 on the year. Tyler Lamers took the loss to drop to 2-4 for LC. Burrow had four hits and Stafford and Loewe added three apiece as UMHB pounded out 21 hits in the win.
The Cru got a dominating pitching performance from Aaron Barteau and timely late hitting to make it stand up in a 6-3 victory in game two. UMHB took a 3-0 lead on RBI singles from K.J. Stark and Loewe and a run-scoring error in the bottom of the second. Another run-scoring error put the Cru up 4-0 in the bottom of the third. It would stay that way until Louisiana College scored three runs and had the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Jon Franz struck out consecutive hitters to close out the threat and preserve the lead. Stark and Dakota Parsons then drove in runs in the bottom of the eighth to push the lead back to 6-3. Cory Farr used a strike out and double play to close it out in the ninth and earn his second save of the season. Barteau improved to 4-0 after strikeout out 12 and giving up just three hits in seven scoreless innings as the Cru starter. Five different players had two hits apiece for UMHB. Bo Ockman took the loss for LC to drop to 1-3 despite not giving up an earned run.
The two teams will close out the series with a noon single game on Saturday. UMHB will then host Trinity University for a 7:00 PM non-conference game next Tuesday.
