ALPINE, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team closed the 2024 regular season with an impressive 13-5 win over Sul Ross State University Saturday in Alpine. The win improved the Cru to 24-15 on the season while the Lobos fell to 10-29.
UMHB started off strong with six first-inning scores.
Cameron Talburt scored on an RBI from
Carson Hagan before
Tyler Betts reached home on an error.
Elijah Rodriguez kickstarted a trio of RBI singles, scoring
Riley Bender before
Chris Perez and
Easton Cline each added scoring singles to put the Cru ahead by five.
Cameron Talburt drove in the final run of the inning with an RBI double.
The Lobos responded with a three-RBI double in the bottom of the second inning and an RBI single in the fourth to cut the gap to just two. The Cru added a single run in the fifth off a sacrifice fly from
Easton Cline before scoring a trio of runs in the sixth.
Riley Bender doubled to score Hagan and Betts before
Rhett Grosz scored off a sacrifice fly from
Kaden deBerardinis for a 10-4 UMHB lead.
UMHB added one more run in the eighth off a double from
Warren Sammons to go ahead by 11-4. The Cru tacked on two more runs in the ninth, scoring on a groundout and a
Riley Bender double. UMHB's defense gave up just one more run, sealing the 13-5 victory for the Cru.
Tyler Betts led the Cru with four hits while
Kaden deBerardinis added three. Four other Crusaders had multi-hit games as UMHB totaled 20 total hits in the contest.
Riley Bender led all athletes with three RBI while Betts, Grosz, Bender and deBerardinis each added two runs.
Keegan Symons opened the game on the mound for the Cru, throwing two innings.
Cameron Bogan followed with two more innings, while
Erick Roberts also added two.
Mason Semmelmann,
Robert Sanford and
Reid Cromie each added an inning with Roberts, Semmelmann and Sanford all throwing shutouts.
UMHB advances to play in the 2024 American Southwest Conference Baseball Championship Tournament. More information about the tournament will be available on cruathletics.com and ascsports.org.