BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team raced out to an early lead and never looked back in a 10-2 win over Blackburn College Wednesday night in Belton. The Cru improves to 7-8 with the victory. The loss drops the Beavers to 3-7 on the year,
 
Jeb Zolman gave UMHB an early lead with a two-run double in the bottom of the first and a run-scoring error pushed it to 3-0 in the third. Landon Dieterich blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth and Hunter McQuary added a two-run home run in the fifth to stretch the lead to 7-0. Brandon Madden added a three-run shot for his first collegiate home run later in that inning to give the Cru a 10-0 lead. Mitchell Binder's solo home run cut the lead to 10-1 in the top of the seventh and Blackburn added another run in the top of the ninth.
 
Madden had three hits and finished a triple short of the cycle for UMHB. Dieterich, McQuary, Zolman and Caimyn Holiday added two hits apiece as the Cru finished with 14 on the night. Bailey Whatley allowed one run and three hits in seven innings to improve to 1-2 on the mound for UMHB. Binder had three of Blackburn's six hits and Derek Phillips took the loss to drop to 0-1 on the year.
 
The Cru will return to action with a three-game home conference series against East Texas Baptist this weekend. That schedule has changed due to the threat of rain. The two teams are set for a 1 pm doubleheader on Friday before closing out the weekend with a noon single-game on Saturday.