BELTON, Texas - The UMHB baseball team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they defeated Southwestern 11-1 in 8 innings. The victory for the Crusaders brings them to 13-10 on the season and the Southwestern loss drops them to 8-12 overall.
 
UMHB got the bats going early with a couple of RBI singles from Warren Sammons and Ryan Farmer to give the Cru a 2-0 lead. In the third inning, Hunter Jones doubled the lead for the Cru with a two-run homer that also scored Malek Bolin. Southwestern was able to get on the board in the fifth inning from a sacrifice flyout by Trent Raschke that scored Henry Fisher, but that would complete the scoring for the Pirates. An RBI sacrifice fly by Kaden deBerardinis and an RBI single by Sam Muniga in the sixth inning gave the Crusaders two more runs and extended the lead to five. The hot bats of UMHB did not stop in the seventh inning, as Ryan Farmer hit a two-run homer and Drake Herrera added another run from a sacrifice fly. Another Hunter Jones home run in the eighth inning gave the Cru a 10-1 advantage and later in the inning, Rhett Grosz put the game away with an RBI single.
 
Zach Carroll started on the mound for UMHB and earned the win (1-0). Carroll threw five innings and gave up just one run on two hits while striking out four.  Cameron Bogan came in relief and threw a scoreless inning, only surrendering one hit. Alex Palczewski would come in after that and throw the final two innings and did not allow a run or hit. Silas Jones started on the mound for the Pirates and took the loss (0-1). In his 1.1 innings of work, Jones allowed two runs on two hits. Jones was relieved by Braden Ander who also allowed two runs to cross in 2.2 innings. Bryan Meissner came in after that and allowed another two runs in 1.2 innings of work. Trey Schwarz and John Sparks combined for the final five out and allowed five runs on five hits. Ryan Farmer and Hunter Jones led the way for UMHB with three RBI each, and Sam Muniga added on three hits of his own.
 
UMHB returns to action Friday, April 1^st against East Texas Baptist University in game one of a conference series at 6 P.M. in Belton.