BB sweeps Hardin-Simmons 10-4, 5-4

03/15/08

Abilene, TX - The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team used a pair of late-inning home runs to take lead and the Cru held on for a 5-4 game two victory and a doubleheader sweep of Hardin-Simmons University Saturday in Abilene. UMHB took game one of the doubleheader 10-4 and won the series 2-1 from the Cowboys. The Cru improves to 16-4 overall and 5-1 in American Southwest Conference play with the two wins. Hardin-Simmons drops to 11-8 overall and 2-4 in the ASC with the two losses.

UMHB fell behind early before the late power surge helped lead the Cru to a 5-4 game two victory. The Cowboys took a 2-0 lead on a pair of RBI singles in the bottom of the second. Adam Froeschl's sacrifice fly cut it to 2-1 in the third and UMHB tied the game on an error in the fifth. Marcus Volz hit an RBI double in the sixth to put the Cru up 3-2 before the Cowboys tied in on Ryan Post's RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. R.B. Garza led off the top of the eighth with a solo home run to put UMHB up 4-3 and Joseph Villegas added a solo shot in the top of the ninth to make it 5-3 Cru. Ryan Stepp led off the bottom of the ninth with solo homer to cut the lead to 5-4, but Adrian Montoya set down the next three batters in order to nail down his first save of the season. Jared Hopper earned the win to raise his record to 2-1 on the year. Hopper scattered nine hits, struck out six and walked just one in seven innings. Kyle Barton took his first loss of the season for the Cowboys. Villegas was 4-5 for the Cru and Jonathan Whitehead added two hits for UMHB. Stepp, Taylor Berlin, and Post all had two hits for Hardin-Simmons.

UMHB grabbed a 4-0 first-inning lead and never looked back on the way to a 10-4 win in game one. Andrew White singled home a run, Garza doubled home a pair and UMHB scored another run on an error to make it 4-0 after the top of the first. White scored on a wild pitch in the third to make it 5-0 before the Cowboys cut it to 5-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. Steven Reinlie doubled home a run and scored on an error to make it 7-2 UMHB in the fourth. Chris Joshlin then doubled home two runs and scored on Earnest Pena's sacrifice fly to push the lead to 10-2 UMHB in the sixth. HSU added two more in the bottom of the seventh, but it was too little, too late for the Cowboys. Zack Tumlinson earned the win for UMHB to improve to 2-0 on the season. Lance Johnson took the loss for HSU. White and Joshlin had three hits apiece to lead a 12-hit Cru attack. Brian Weeks had two of the Cowboys eight hits in the loss.

The Cru will return to action with a 3:00 PM non-conference game at Texas Wesleyan Tuesday in Fort Worth. UMHB will then return home to host McMurry University for a three-game ASC West Division series at Red Murff Field on Thursday and Friday.