BELTON, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor softball team grabbed early leads in both games and never looked back in a doubleheader sweep of Howard Payne Friday afternoon in Belton. UMHB won game one 7-0 and took game two 8-2 to improve to 16-11 overall and 10-7 in American Southwest Conference play on the season. Howard Payne falls to 12-12 overall and 7-10 in the ASC with the two losses.
 
UMHB took game one 7-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from Bailey Grogan. The Cru opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first. Elissa Elliott singled home one run and scored the other on a wild pitch. Izzy Gutierrez led off the bottom of the second with a triple and score on Tyeann Johnson's groundout to make it 3-0. Elliott scored on an Elisabeth Paul groundout in the fourth to stretch it to 4-0 and UMHB added three in the bottom of the fifth. Paul singled home the first run and Taylor Holman added a two-run homer. Grogan allowed just one hit, a two-out single in the second and walked one to raise her record to 10-7 on the season. Bailey Wagner had three hits for the Cru.
 
UMHB used a six-run second inning to break open game two in an 8-2 victory. Milly Cesare's RBI single gave the Cru a 1-0 edge in the bottom of the first before the second-inning explosion. Bailey Eggleston singled home the first two runs, Elliott added an RBI fielder's choice, Wagner singled home the fourth run and Holman and Cesare followed with RBI groundouts. HPU scored a run in the top of the third before UMHB added a run on Wagner's RBI single in the fifth. The Yellow Jackets scored one more in the sixth to cut it to the final margin. Kami Flores earned the win to move to 4-2 on the season and Kylee Flores posted her first save of the year. Wagner and Lexi Harris both had three hits for the Cru in game two.
 
The two teams will close out the series with a noon single game on Saturday. UMHB will then travel to Abilene next weekend for a three-game, conference series at McMurry University.