LONGVIEW, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader to LeTourneau University Saturday in Longview. The Cru lost 6-5 and 8-0 to fall to 5-8 overall and 2-7 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. The YellowJackets improve to 9-7 overall and 6-3 in the ASC with the two victories.
LeTourneau held off a late Cru rally for a 6-5 win in game one. UMHB took a 1-0 lead on
Jeb Zolman's RBI single in the top of the first inning. The YellowJackets put three runs on the board in the bottom of that inning. The Cru cut it to 3-2 on
Caimyn Holiday's RBI single in the top of the second and tied the game on
Taylor Neil's RBI single in the top of the fourth. Bryce Brueggemeyer broke the tie with an RBI single and Weston McKinley added a two-run single to stretch the lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Holiday doubled home a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to close the gap to 6-5, but UMHB went in order in the top of the seventh as LeTourneau held on for the win. Holiday had three hits and three RBI for the Cru.
Rahul Champaneri took the loss to drop to 2-2 for UMHB. McKinley and Noah Mahoney had two hits apiece for the YellowJackets. Kyle Maysonave earned the win to move to 2-0 and Will Bradshaw notched his first save of the year.
The Cru could not get the offense untracked in the 8-0 game two loss. Chaz Jackson gave LeTourneau a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the third and Bradshaw tripled home two runs in the fourth. Jackson added a two-run double in the sixth and the YellowJackets scored three more runs in the seventh to provide more breathing room.
Landon Murray took the loss for UMHB to drop to 1-1 on the season.
Malek Bolin had two of the Cru's four hits in the game. Kolbey Sharpe tossed a complete-game, four-hit shutout for LeTourneau to raise his record to 3-2 on the year. Jackson had three hits and three RBI and four other players had two hits apiece for the YellowJackets.
The Cru will now return home for a full week of Spring Break games. UMHB will host UT Dallas and Blackburn for non-conference games on Tuesday and Wednesday. East Texas Baptist will then visit Red Murff Field for a three-game conference series on Friday and Saturday.