BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team broke open a tight game in the later innings as the Cru posted an 8-2 victory over #23 Concordia Texas Thursday night in Belton. UMHB improves to 11-24 overall and 5-12 in American Southwest Conference play with its second straight win over a nationally-ranked opponent. The loss drops the Tornados to 27-10 overall and 13-6 in ASC play on the season.
 
Concordia jumped out to a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the top of the first. UMHB tied the game on Landon Dieterich's sacrifice fly in the bottom of that frame. The Cru grabbed a 2-1 lead on Garrett Gonzales' RBI single in the bottom of the fifth. UMHB added four runs in the bottom of the seventh. Dieterich singled home the first two runs and Jackson Godoy and Dieterich both scored on Tornado errors to make it 6-1. Cameron Whitman pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the eighth and the Cru tacked on two more runs in the bottom of that inning. Jacob Dellipoali scored on an error and Caimyn Holiday added an RBI single to put UMHB up 8-1. Concordia added a run in the top of the ninth on a groundout but could not get closer than the final margin.
 
Whitman earned the win for UMHB to raise his record to 3-4. He scattered seven hits and allowed just one earned run while striking out 11 in eight innings of work. Dellipoali had three hits for the Cru and Holiday and Dieterich added two hits apiece. Michael Smith took the loss for CTX to drop to 5-1 on the season. Six different players had hits for the Tornados.
 
The two teams will close out the series with a 4 pm doubleheader on Friday at Red Murff Field. The Cru will honor its 2019 senior class prior to the opening game.