BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team fell behind in the early innings and never recovered in a 13-6 loss to the University of Chicago Tuesday night in Belton. The Cru drops to 8-13 on the season with the loss. The Maroons improve to 6-3 on the year with the victory.

Chicago scored one run in the first and two more in the second to grab a 3-0 lead before putting up eight runs in the third inning. The Maroons bunched six hits, two walks, a hit batter, an error and three wild pitches in the frame to take an 11-0 lead. UMHB cut it to 11-2 on Garret Gonzales' RBI single and a run-scoring error in the bottom of the fourth inning. Chicago answered with two runs in the top of the fifth before the Cru closed out the scoring with a four-run sixth inning. UMHB used consecutive run-scoring singles from Sam Wheatley, Malek Bolin and Hunter McQuary and Braden Letney's sacrifice fly to cut the gap to the final margin.

Seven different players had hits for UMHB in the game. Hayden Ball took the loss for the Cru after giving up three runs in two innings in his first collegiate start. Ricardo Fernandez (1-0) picked up the win for Chicago and Ravi Bakhai struck out seven in four strong innings of relief for his first save. Connor Hickey, Ian Bohn and Josh Parks had three hits apiece as the Maroons totaled 16 hits in the contest.

The game closed out a six-game home stand for the Cru. UMHB will now return to American Southwest Conference play with a three-game series at the University of the Ozarks this weekend. The Cru and Eagles will play a 1:00 PM doubleheader on Friday in Clarksville, Arkansas before closing out the series with a 1:00 PM single game on Saturday.