MARSHALL, Texas - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team lost a tight game to East Texas Baptist in extra innings, falling 10-9 to the Tigers in the ASC Blue Bracket championship. The loss ends the season for the Cru with a final record of 25-19. The ETBU Tigers move on to the gold bracket championship series against the winner of UT-Dallas and Belhaven.
 
The Tigers jumped on early as their leadoff hitter, Carson Wilson, and two-hole hitter, Will Kelley, hit back-to-back solo home runs. ETBU extended their lead in the second inning with another solo homer by Brett Wagner to make it 3-0. Hunter Jones chipped into that lead in the fourth inning for the Cru, hitting a two-RBI double before Ryan Farmer later tied it up with an RBI single. The Crusaders took the lead in the same inning with an RBI double by Rhett Grosz. UMHB extended their lead in the fifth inning on a wild pitch that scored Drake Herrera. The Crusaders continued to score with Caimyn Holiday reaching on a sacrifice fly out from Hunter Jones. Farmer, the very next hitter, sent one over the center field wall for two more runs to give the Cru an 8-3 advantage.
 
In the seventh inning, a couple of RBI singles by Wilson and Kelley put the Tigers right back in the game to make it 8-5. Sam Muniga responded in the top of the eighth with an RBI single of his own to put the Cru back up four. Wilson and the Tigers made another surge as he hit a two-run single and his teammate, Ben Lea, scored on a wild pitch, putting them within one. UMHB had no answer for that in the ninth and Wagner took advantage of that with a two-out RBI double to tie the game up at nine apiece. ETBU got another chance in the tenth inning with the game still tied and Christopher Robinson sent a ground ball through the infield to score the game-winning run.
 
Andrew Acierni made his second start of the year and threw 4.2 innings. Acierni allowed three runs on four hits before Trevor Ripke came out of the bullpen to relieve him. Ripke threw 2.1 innings and gave up two runs on three hits. Alex Palczewski threw in Ripke's relief and allowed four runs on five hits in two innings of work. Zack Honey threw the final inning and took the loss as he gave up one run on two hits. Braden Karnes started on the mound for the Tigers and threw four innings giving up four runs on four hits before Trent Clark came in relief. Clark threw the final six innings and gave up five runs on eight hits on his way to earning the victory.
 
The Crusaders finish with their best season under third-year head coach Mike Stawski and the program shows no signs of slowing down. The Cru set a program record for postseason wins and collected the program's third-highest win-total in the Division III era. Nicklas Fenner, Caimyn Holiday, Robert McCall and Sam Muniga all earned ASC All-Tournament honors.