BROWNWOOD, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team earned a 15-2 win over Howard Payne University Wednesday evening in Brownwood. The win improves the Cru's overall record to 19-14 with a 4-5 mark in American Southwest Conference action. The Yellow Jackets fall to 7-24 on the season and 0-9 in league play.
Easton Cline opened up the Cru's scoring in the top of the first inning with an RBI double to score
Carson Hagan who got on with a double of his own in the previous at-bat. UMHB added two more in the second after back-to-back singles put
Jasson Hemmerling, Jr. and
Tyler Betts on base, both scoring on a Hagan triple.
Shane Melick hit his eighth home run of the year in the third inning, earning an RBI and extending the Cru's lead to four. Hemmerling and
Austin Birkhoff followed, each hitting an RBI single to make it a 6-0 ballgame. The Yellow Jackets chipped into the lead scoring one in the bottom of the third off an RBI single.
UMHB added another run to the board in the sixth when
Easton Cline hit his third double of the night, scoring
Carson Hagan. The Cru didn't stop there, tacking on two more runs in the seventh.
Tyler Betts doubled down the left field line, scoring
Exavier Mendez.
Austin Birkhoff then crossed the plate on a wild pitch, extending the lead to 9-1. HPU responded with an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning, moving the score to 9-2. The Cru added six insurance runs in the bottom of the ninth off three hits from Jasson Hemmerling,
Carson Hagan, and
Shane Melick. After a scoreless ninth from the Yellow Jackets, UMHB secured the 15-2 victory.
Easton Cline recorded three doubles on the night with three RBI and three runs scored.
Carson Hagan and
Shane Melick each added three hits and three RBI of their own, with four other Crusaders adding multiple hits. Eight of the Cru's 19 hits were for extra bases.
Kolby McBee earned the win on the mound moving his season record to 6-1. McBee threw 6.0 innings tallying six strikeouts, giving up just one earned run.
Reid Cromie,
Mason Semmelmann, and
Drake Gaines each pitched a complete inning, combining to give up just two hits and one earned run.
UMHB will continue the series against Howard Payne on Thursday, April 17
th in a 3:00pm doubleheader in Brownwood.